


Our Own Demons

by random_chick



Category: Primeval, The Host - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-13
Updated: 2013-01-13
Packaged: 2017-11-25 10:25:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/637905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/random_chick/pseuds/random_chick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Six months ago, Melanie Stryder lost her lover and best friend, Jared Howe. She's just trying to deal with life. And Danny Quinn's just trying to pull himself back together after coming through an anomaly. Will he even want to go home again?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written for 2011's scifibigbang @ LJ

It was supposed to be just a typical trip out for the five men: spying on the Souls, stealing food and medicine, looking for anything else they might find useful, the usual. But that was blown all to hell less than a week into it, when the team stumbled upon something unusual.

Well, more like _someone_ unusual.

Another person.

"Brandt, Jamie, grab him," Kyle ordered. "Grab him and bring him here. I want to see his eyes." If this was one of the Souls, they'd have a problem. If it wasn't a Soul, they'd have a problem of an entirely different sort.

The man struggled in their grasp, nearly getting free once as Brandt and Jamie dragged him over to Kyle. "Ow!" the man protested.

"Sorry," Jamie said, loosening his grip slightly; Brandt had more than enough of a tight grip for the both of them,

"Why are you apologizing to it, Jamie?" Kyle snapped. He still didn't like the vast majority of Souls. Wanderer and Sunny were different. He knew them. They were his friends and part of his family. Whoever this person was, they were an unknown quantity; until they proved themselves or he found out that they were pure wild human, he was going to proceed with a healthy dose of skepticism and paranoia. A more than healthy dose, really.

Once the man was in front of him, Kyle looked at him critically -- though pleased to see that the man was meeting his gaze defiantly. That was pure human; no Soul could recreate the anger he saw in the other man's eyes. It helped that the other man's eyes weren't Soul blue, as well.

"What's your name?" Kyle asked after a moment.

"Danny," was the suspicious reply. "Danny Quinn. Who're you?"

Kyle approved of the suspicion. "Kyle."

"Well, Kyle, mind telling these two yahoos to let me go?"

Kyle nodded to the two men, who promptly released Danny.

"Where do you come from?" Kyle asked, though the accent sort of gave it away.

"England," Danny replied, not wanting to answer but having the sneaking suspicion Kyle wouldn't react well if he flat out refused to answer. So he compromised with himself, giving an answer that answered the question but didn't really give any information.

"England, huh?" Kyle whistled. "You sure are a long way from home, Danny Quinn. Couldn't have been an easy trip for you to make -- or a safe one."

 _You have no idea,_ Danny thought.

"Surely the Souls on whatever mode of transport you used would've noticed you before very long," Kyle said. "So how did you evade them?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Danny said. "Souls? I'm not following." Somehow he didn't think they were talking about the kind of souls that people had. And if they were, then that was a metaphysical conversation he didn't want to have with a bunch of crazy people.

Kyle snorted. "Right. Nice try."

"I don't," Danny said evenly. "All I know is, one minute I was somewhere else and the next minute I was here."

It was a bit more complicated than that, but he wasn't going to blurt out an explanation about anomalies to just anybody, and especially not to this raging jackass.

"What do we do with him?" Ian asked.

"What do you think we should do?" Kyle looked at his brother. Ian was smart; he'd have a decent idea or two.

"Take him back with us," Ian said. "Let him meet Mel and Jeb, see what the two of them say."

Kyle considered it for a couple moments. "I agree," he said finally. "They'll know what we should do with him." Well, Jeb would. Melanie was too busy grieving to do much of anything else. Too busy grieving to be of much use.

"Do with me? What makes you think I want to go with you in the first place?" Danny protested.

"The fact that on your own, you'll be caught in a matter of hours," Kyle replied. "And that's something you don't want. You won't even get offered as a host, you'll just be killed."

Danny didn't know what the hell was going on, but he did know that he didn't want to die. "All right," he said finally. "I'll come with you. But I'm not going to like it."

"Coming with us means food and shelter and safety," Jamie said. "It's really not such a bad place to be. It's better than the alternative."

That very well might be, but Danny had more important things to do than get taken in by a group of people who might very well just be crazy, things like figure out just how the hell he was going to get back to the ARC and tell them what was going on. But at the same time, he couldn't do that if he were captured and killed.

"Fine," he said reluctantly. "Let's go."

 

The walk was a long, dusty, and utterly uneventful one. No matter how many times somebody tried to engage Danny in conversation, how many times someone tried to pry information out of him, he refused to say a word. He wasn't stupid. He didn't know what kind of situation he was in, so he wasn't going to say anything more than was necessary -- and he'd already said all that was necessary, in his estimation.

He always had been a man of few words.

He did his best to ignore the dust kicking up around them as they walked, choosing to focus on mentally going over everything he knew about his situation. When he laid it all out, it wasn't much -- he was somewhere that was neither any of the times or places he'd been in nor his own time and place, but somewhere in between his time and the last time he'd been in. These people had trouble with Souls, whatever those were -- because they certainly weren't talking about the kind of soul a person had. And they hadn't seemed terribly perturbed to see the anomaly closing. Of course, to be as fair as he could manage to be at that moment, they were more interested in the fact that they'd just found a complete stranger. He'd gotten the impression that finding strangers didn't happen all that often.

So what did he do next? Answer: He looked at this as if it were an investigation. He circled around the problem as he would have one of his cases and followed the path to its natural conclusion, whatever that ended up being.

Which meant that his next move was to let them take him wherever it was they were going. Even if there were more problems ahead by doing that, he had to admit that the one guy had had a point -- it meant food and shelter, both of which had been sorely lacking in his life over the past year and especially the past couple of weeks.

He couldn't help grinning to himself when Kyle glanced back at him and glared. He didn't like that guy, didn't like him one bit. But then again, he didn't need to like Kyle -- or any of them. Though Jamie didn't seem so bad; after all, Jamie had been the one who'd been vaguely encouraging when they first caught him. He thought Jamie might be the youngest of the group, which could work in Danny's favor as he also seemed the one most likely to be sympathetic to Danny.

Though Ian had been at least respectful of Danny, too. He wasn't sure if that meant he had two potential allies or if he'd just found the two least horrible bad guys. Not that he thought these people were villains -- he knew villains; after all, he'd dealt with Helen bloody Cutter -- but he didn't exactly think they were sweetness and light and innocence, either.

They were complicated, was what they were. He could understand complicated people. After all, he'd worked with enough of them at the ARC. But he wasn't going to settle easily into whatever they wanted, largely because he _wasn't_ complicated. He was ridiculously _un_ complicated, actually. He had his rules that he lived by and that was that.

Though somehow he had a feeling these people would understand that, if nothing else. Not that he had any interest in building any kind of bond or bridge or friendship or _anything_ between himself and them. He just wanted to take advantage -- with their unwilling permission -- of their food and shelter for a while until he figured out what his next move was. Of course, he didn't know how long that was going to be. Details, details. He could live with not knowing that as long as he knew that he had a plan.

And he did. It might not have been a very _good_ plan at the moment, but it was also all he had. He'd just have to sit down at the first opportunity and refine it. Easy enough, he supposed as he walked.

"He still not talking?" Kyle called back over his shoulder.

"Nope," Jamie responded from his position behind Danny.

"Damn it."

"Jackass," Danny muttered under his breath, the nicest thing he could call Kyle at the moment.

Jamie stifled a snicker. "Yeah, you've basically got him pegged," he said quietly to Danny. "But he's not so bad, really."

"All the same, I think I'll pass on the opportunity to get to know His Royal Grumpiness up there any better than I already do," Danny said dryly.

Jamie stifled another snicker. "You really _do_ have him pegged."

"What can I say?" Danny shrugged. "It's a gift."

 

Melanie had tried to stay cheerful for Wanderer, she really had, but she'd never been the most cheerful person in the world to begin with; losing Jared had sucked any remaining cheerful right on out of her. She'd had him for so few years, not even ten, and then he was gone. In an accident, of all things. He hadn't even been taken by the Souls. She could've lived with that, as sad and depressing as it would've been. But he'd died in a fucking rock slide while out scouting. He hadn't even died fighting.

All she could ever think was that he'd hate that.

She'd become a shadow of herself over the past few months and she knew it. But try as she might, she couldn't figure out how to change that. And most of the time, she didn't even want to try. With Jared gone, she'd lost such a large part of her life.

So when the latest scouting party came back, she was nervous and on edge. When she realized they'd come back with an extra person, she was understandably more than a little freaked.

"Who is that?" she demanded, grabbing Ian by the arm. "Who is he, Ian? He's not one of ours, I can tell."

"Calm down, Mel, it's okay," Ian soothed. "His name's Danny. We don't know where he's from. Couldn't get much out of him, which I think pissed Kyle off. But he's not a Soul, we know that much."

That helped only slightly -- aside from Wanderer and Sunny, the Souls still made her feel more than just the slightest bit weirded out.

"So you brought him back _here_?" Her voice rose a little on the last word. Though really, what else could they have done with the guy? But that was being more charitable than she was willing to be at the moment.

"We followed the protocol," Ian said. "He was blindfolded until we got inside. Which, let me tell you, he was _not_ happy with."

That'd been a bit of an understatement, actually. Danny had put up eight kinds of a fuss about it.

Melanie gave a shrug; she didn't much care if the new guy had liked it or not. "Find somewhere to keep him for now, then we'll have to talk to him. See what actual information we can get out of him."

Ian nodded slightly. "I'll stick him in one of the rooms we cleaned up, that way he's already got a place to sleep if he's not pulling some kind of trick on everyone."

After Wanderer, they'd made a practice of keeping a room or two ready for new people at all times. It'd come in handy a couple times over the past several years.

"Stash him somewhere, then let me know. I'll bring him something to eat, talk to him a little, see what I can find out."

It was more of a contribution than she'd made lately. At least, more of a contribution of her own thought and design.

That fact didn't go unnoticed by Ian, either. He hoped it meant Mel was finally starting to heal and be her old self again. At this point, they'd take just about anything.

 

Danny looked up, moving out of the way as the curtain pulled aside. "Who are you?"

"I should be asking you that," Melanie replied, setting a tray down on a stack of crates. "Brought you some food. They said you were hungry."

Danny perked up a little at that; he couldn't help it. "Food?" Because really, after a year hopping around in time, you got used to eating whatever you could find whenever and wherever you could find it -- whether or not it qualified as food to begin with. Real food would be absolute heaven.

Melanie softened a little at the look on his face. She knew what it was to be hungry like that, knew what it was to not have food to begin with. "Yes, food," she said gently. "It's not much, but it's hot and it's properly cooked."

"I've survived eating whatever I could kill, catch, or forage for the last year," Danny said. "Trust me, I don't care if it's much or not. Though admittedly, I'm quite fond of the properly cooked part. There's only so many times you can give yourself salmonella or the like before it starts getting old."

Melanie smiled a little at that as she picked up the tray and held it out to Danny, who'd retreated to the bed -- well, the mattress and sleeping bag -- as soon as she'd come in. "Here."

Danny leaned forward to take the tray. She'd been right, it wasn't much, just soup, a sandwich of some sort, and a glass of water. But to him, it was the best damn meal he'd seen in over a year. "Thanks," he said with a slight nod. "Gonna sit for a minute or are you just gonna stand there and look at me all funny?"

Melanie took a seat on the stack of crates, her hands resting idly in her lap and toying with the hem of her shirt. "So who are you?" she asked with her characteristic bluntness, even as she was uncharacteristically awkward and fidgety.

"Danny," he managed around a bite of sandwich. "Danny Quinn."

"Well, Danny Quinn, what's your story?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

Melanie laughed, a short sharp laugh. "You'd be surprised what I'll believe," she said. "Try me."

"I'm -- well, I was -- part of a group who worked with these... kind of gateways," Danny began, watching Melanie's face for her reactions. "To the past, mostly, but also to the future. All over time, really."

A little weird, but no weirder than the Souls, Melanie decided. And more logical, in a strange way. "What did you do with these gateways?"

"Traveled through them sometimes. Most of the time, locked them down." Another bite of sandwich. "We call them anomalies."

Melanie nodded thoughtfully. "Go on."

Danny chose his words carefully, not wanting to give away anything valuable in terms of information but knowing she would expect something out of him. "Generally, the anomalies we dealt with led to the far distant past or the far distant future." Something crossed his face then, something best left alone -- at least for the time being. "Not sure why this one took me here... This doesn't look like very far in the future, though I suppose it is in terms of where I just was."

"It's... well, if we really measured years anymore, it'd be 2025," Melanie said. "The Souls have been here for fifteen years."

"Souls?" Danny looked at her curiously. He still didn't understand what exactly she and the others meant by that, despite what precious little he'd managed to piece together.

"Invaders who took over the planet and took over the human race." There was bitterness in her voice, no mistake. "They used us as hosts and made the planet nothing but calm and peaceful. They tried to eradicate natural humans."

"Obviously they didn't succeed, though," Danny ventured. "Or else you and the others wouldn't be here."

"No, they didn't," Melanie agreed. "There are still bands of so-called wild humans out there. Not many, I think." She looked away. "I try not to think about it too much."

What little she'd told him was giving Danny a headache. How had this happened to humanity? There'd been no signs of the Souls in the far future... in any of the parts of it they'd seen. Did that mean even the Souls had been eradicated by then? Did that mean Helen had managed to change something after all? And if she had, it looked like she'd changed it for the worse. He took a perverse sort of amusement in that, knowing that the woman would be furious to know this was what all her efforts might've led to.

"How many of there are you?" he asked curiously. "I couldn't get a good sense of it while blindfolded."

"Sorry about that," Melanie said, deftly sidestepping his question. "It's what we do to new people, just in case. To make sure they can't tell their way here."

"Smart," Danny said with an approving nod. "It never hurts to be careful."

The strange thought crossed Melanie's mind that Jared would have liked this guy, bringing with it a sad look on her face.

A sad look that Danny caught. "Did I say something wrong?" he asked cautiously.

Melanie shook her head. "Just... remembering somebody who's no longer here."

"Somebody important, by the looks of it."

"Yeah. He was my..." Melanie laughed. "In another life, he would have been called my boyfriend, I suppose." Such a trite word to define what he'd been to her.

"My condolences, then." A pause. "The first few months are always the hardest, aren't they?" Danny ventured.

Melanie looked at him, startled. "Yeah," she said, quietly, after a moment. "Who'd you lose?"

"My brother, years ago. My friends and coworkers a year ago, in a way."

She looked at him curiously. "How? If you don't mind my asking."

Thinking of his brother still hurt too much, even after all these years, so Danny elected to explain the other part. "Myself and two others chased someone through an anomaly. I then wound up chasing her through another anomaly. I then spent... I'm not sure how long, I think about a year, bouncing through time trying to find a way home."

"That... is too crazy to be anything other than true," Melanie decided. "Doesn't mean we're trusting you around here right away, though. Don't worry, we're suspicious of everybody new. Just ask Wanderer."

"Wanderer?"

"Or Wanda, she answers to either. Teeny blonde thing, blushes at the drop of a hat." Melanie smiled faintly. "She's a sweetheart. I don't advise upsetting her."

"You say that like I was planning to," Danny replied archly.

"Sorry," Melanie said grudgingly. "We're all just really protective of her. She's... been through a lot."

"So have you," Danny countered. "Who's going to be protective of you?"

And then he winced. "Shit, sorry, that was really ridiculously insensitive of me, wasn't it?"

"Probably," Melanie said, but her lips were curved in a faint smile that was somehow more real than anything else she'd given lately. "But the sentiment was appreciated."

"Good. I'd hate to have offended one of my rescuers so soon." Danny quirked a grin. "I'm pretty good at offending people, but I'm not _that_ good at it, even with my admittedly rusty social skills."

"Your social skills seem just fine to me," Melanie said. "Then again, I'm not exactly the friendliest person, or so I've been told. I may or may not be the most appropriate judge."

Danny had the sudden irrational urge to keep her talking for as long as he could. There was something about Melanie he liked, but more importantly, there was something about her that just resonated with him. Like she was supposed to help make his life make sense. But no, that was the latent crazy talking, he was sure.

"You gave me a favorable response, so I'd say you're a damn good judge of these things," Danny said with a grin, possibly the first grin since before he'd gone on his time-hopping adventure.

If she were the kind of girl who blushed, Melanie would've done so. But she wasn't, so she just returned the grin. "I think I like you."

It was a rash judgement, based not at all on logic and entirely on something that wasn't quite emotion. Desperation, maybe. Desperation to have someone she connected with, who understood her, who didn't make her feel like an emotionally disconnected malcontent.

 _Whoa, Mel, you really need to talk to someone,_ she told herself. _Because wow, you really don't need to be thinking about random stranger new guy like that._

It was understandable, though. In this day and age, when you found a connection you had to go for it. That was why she'd jumped so whole-heartedly into her relationship with Jared despite Jared's own reservations about it at first.

"Well, good," was Danny's response. "Means at least one person here likes me. Maybe with one person on my side, the others will tolerate me. They seemed a little... less than thrilled to be bringing me back, which doesn't make much sense to me if there's so few humans left, like you said."

"We've been cautious and suspicious for so long that it's kinda hard to let go of it," Melanie explained. "Besides, I'm pretty sure we weren't actually expecting to find anybody out there, period, much less a human survivor."

"How is this possible?" Danny wondered aloud, though whether to her or himself wasn't clear.

"They came and invaded and this is the end result," Melanie said with a shrug.

"It's crazy."

Melanie studied him thoughtfully. It was strange, seeing an outsider's view on things. Especially when the outsider was from a situation so different from her own.

"Is this going to be where I'm sleeping?" Danny asked.

Melanie nodded. "Yeah. Sleeping arrangements around here aren't the greatest, but at least you're not sleeping directly on the hard ground." They had some mattresses they'd managed to scavenge, and they'd figured out how to make passable ones of their own. They weren't always the most comfortable, but it beat hard ground by a long shot.

"I'm alive to be sleeping," was Danny's response. "Besides, I've spent the past year sleeping on hard ground. I've gotten used to it, pretty much."

"Then this must seem like heaven," Melanie observed, feeling another sudden pang of sympathy.

"Pretty much," Danny agreed. "Everybody sleep in this part of... wherever we are?"

"Yeah," Melanie said with a nod, figuring that much wouldn't be giving anything away. And it was something he'd need to know before long, anyway. "It's kinda spread out, but we're all in this general area."

"Where are you?"

"Down the hall a couple rooms, actually," she replied. "So I'll poke my head in here in the morning, see if you're awake yet. If you're not, I'm waking you up."

"I'll probably be awake," he said. "Past year's been a lot of catching bits and pieces of sleep wherever and whenever I could. I don't sleep for very long anymore." Sleep had meant vulnerability and vulnerability meant dying. And that just wasn't going to happen.

"I'll let you get some rest, then," Melanie said as she stood. "When you're done eating, just stick your tray outside in the hall, someone will grab it." They generally took their own trays back to the kitchen when they ate in their rooms, but since Danny didn't know where the kitchen even was, she'd make an exception this time. Because yeah, she'd probably be the one to grab the tray in a bit.

She wasn't sure why she wanted to help him, even with just that little of a task. It was more than being nice to a survivor, it was being nice to someone who didn't belong. Whose world didn't include the Souls.

God, she was jealous of that.


	2. Chapter 2

Melanie got back to her room and found Wanderer sitting on her bed. "What's up?"

"Ian said there's someone new," Wanderer said, tilting her head slightly and tucking her blonde hair back behind her ears.

"Yeah." Melanie nodded. "He seems like a decent guy. He'll fit in here." Jeb would have to pass judgement on Danny, of course, but Melanie's gut instinct was that Danny would fit in just fine.

"Good. I hope nobody gives him any trouble. It's not easy being new here." Spoke the voice of experience.

Melanie winced at the memory of how Wanderer had been treated by some of the others. "Sorry."

"Don't be." Wanderer smiled calmly. "I didn't fit in then. I do now."

"Yeah," Melanie said with a firm nod. "You do."

"So maybe I should talk to him," Wanderer said. "I know what he's going to be going through. Even if people aren't mean to him, it's still going to be an adjustment for him."

Melanie nodded thoughtfully. "Might not be a bad idea, actually. Might do him some good to talk to you, and maybe some of the other newer people." But Wanderer was probably the one who'd help him the most.

"Might do you some good to talk to him, too," Wanderer pointed out. "Talk to him more, I mean."

"Why do you say that?"

"You've been pulling inside yourself, Melanie. It scares me." Wanderer could be remarkably blunt at times, through no fault of her own. She just couldn't help it.

Melanie sighed. "I don't mean to," she said. "I honestly don't. It's just easier than dealing with everything I'm feeling."

"I understand that," Wanderer said gently. "Human emotions are scary things."

"Oh, you have no idea." Melanie laughed almost bitterly.

Wanderer tilted her head again, curiously, but said nothing.

"They're scary for you because you've never had them before. They're even scarier for us because we live with them on a day to day basis, but we don't always feel them so intensely. When we do, they're... overwhelming. They threaten to choke us, make us drown."

"You'd never drown, though," Wanderer said gently. "You have all of us here to pull you up."

"I know," Melanie said with a nod. "And that's one of the things I'm most grateful for. But I'm so confused inside, so... twisted and turned around that I need to sort myself out. I know it's painful for the people who love me, but I can't do it with their help. I have to sort myself out on my own."

"But we're here to help," Wanderer said. "When you need us, we're here." She hated that she couldn't help Melanie, that Melanie seemed to not want anybody's help.

"I know," Melanie said with a nod. "And believe me, Wanderer, I'll tell you guys when I need help."

No, she wouldn't. She was independent to a fault that way and everybody knew it.

Even Wanderer. But the tiny blonde didn't say anything, just let the words hang between them. If Melanie wanted to cling to the lie, Wanderer wasn't going to be the one to stop her.

 

Danny lay on his back on the thin mattress, marveling at how amazingly comfortable it felt. Anybody else would have likely been complaining about how hard the ground was underneath it, but not him. He was just grateful it was a reasonably comfortable bed in a safe place, where he didn't have to worry about prehistoric creatures of one type or another being able to eat him alive.

He didn't have to worry about prehistoric creatures at all, at least for the moment. Damn, did that feel good. He didn't know how long that was going to last, when the next anomaly would come along, but until then he was damn well going to enjoy the creature-free zone.

He smiled to himself and rolled onto his side, his back up against the wall so he could face the room. Just because he didn't _have_ to worry any longer didn't mean that he wasn't going to worry anyway. Old habits died hard, especially for the traumatized. He figured he counted.

Traumatized and unstable, if he wanted to be honest. It was more of a struggle than he'd expected to be around people again. He didn't like that, but he'd deal with it. He didn't have much of a choice.

Really, though, he was lucky he'd ended up here. It could have been a lot worse. He could have ended up in some other time period in the far past, and he'd been through enough of those thank you very much. He could have been found by people who weren't nearly as nice as Melanie's group was.

... for a definition of "nice" that included some added mistrust and disgruntledness as a bonus, that was. But given what he knew about them, Danny could hardly blame them for being unsure about him. Especially since he was from their past and all, not that he'd exactly told them that. He hadn't even said it to Melanie, though he'd said enough that she could probably put two and two together and come up with four if she were so inclined.

And she was smart, he could tell that much. Maybe not book smart, but people smart. Survival smart. She'd put it together sooner or later, and he just hoped that when she did, it didn't get to her. Didn't upset her. She was someone he didn't want to upset.

He wasn't sure why he felt the sudden connection to her, other than she seemed to call to every protective instinct he had. He'd have to watch that. Melanie didn't need some new guy getting all snarly at the people she'd lived with for years.

 

Danny was already awake when Melanie came by early the next morning. "Couldn't sleep," he said with a shrug at the startled look on her face as she poked her head into his room.

"Come on, then, let's go get you a bath. Bet you could use one."

"Oh, dear God, yes," Danny said, hopping to his feet immediately.

Melanie suppressed a laugh. "It's not much, and the soap still kind of sucks, but it's water and you can get clean."

"That's all I need," Danny assured her. "I'm feeling pretty damn grungy right about now."

"Honestly? You look it." She was smiling faintly at him as they walked, though.

The rest of the walk was a companionable silence occasionally interrupted by Melanie's pointing something or someone out to Danny.

Finally they reached the bathing area, where Melanie came up with a bar of soap and a towel. "Also, here's a set of fresh clothes," she said, handing him the bundle she'd been almost clutching as they walked. "Figured you'd probably appreciate that almost as much as you would the bath."

"You have no idea."

Melanie laughed softly and shook her head. "Go on, you. I'll be back in a little bit to give you the rest of the tour."

Danny just nodded and set his bundle down on a rock, unbuttoning his shirt. Melanie chose that moment to take her leave.

Danny watched her go. Was she bolting away from him? He couldn't tell. And at the moment, he didn't particularly care. He was too damn interested in getting clean again, truly clean, for the first time in over a year.

 

She found Wanderer in the room that Wanderer now shared with Ian. "Hey," she greeted, sticking her head into the room after knocking.

"Hi," Wanderer said cheerfully, looking up.

"Listen, I need you to do me a favor," Melanie said. "Left Danny in the bathing area cleaning up, told him I'd give him the rest of the tour afterwards. I need you to finish showing him around."

"Is something wrong?" Wanderer asked, her blue eyes wide with concern. Had Danny said or done something to make Melanie want to stay away from him? Did they need to go to Jeb about something?

Melanie shook her head. "Everything's fine," she lied easily. "I just forgot something I have to do, but he really should know his way around the rest of the place."

"He should," Wanderer agreed with a nod. "I'd be happy to show him around."

"Thanks," Melanie said appreciatively. "I hate to bail on him like this, but..." She shrugged. "When Jeb gives you something to do, you do it."

"I understand," Wanderer said, nodding as she stood.

"Tell Danny I'm sorry, okay?" Melanie asked.

"I will."

 

When Danny got out of his bath, it wasn't Melanie who he found waiting for him; it was Wanderer. "Uh, hi," he said, startled. "Where's Melanie?"

"Told her I'd finish showing you around," the tiny blonde said with a sweet smile. "Hi. I'm Wanderer."

"Danny."

"Nice to meet you, Danny." Wanderer smiled again. "So, has Melanie showed you the kitchens yet?"

Danny shook his head. "No. I think we were probably headed there next."

"Good, because you would have missed breakfast otherwise and that'd be a shame." Wanderer laughed softly. "I'm not sure who's in charge of cooking today, though. Everybody likes to plan a different meal."

"As long as it's real food, I'm happy," Danny assured her. "Been a long time since I ate food cooked by other people."

"You've been on your own?" Wanderer asked curiously.

Danny nodded. "Yeah."

"That must have been rough," Wanderer said sympathetically. "I can't imagine what that would be like. I've always had others around me." Even on the flower planet, there had been plenty of other Souls next to her and around her. The environment had been different, but her fellow Souls had not been far away.

"It was," Danny said. "I talked to myself a lot. There weren't any other people around." At least, not people capable of actual speech. And the prehistoric people he'd run into had been more inclined to throw rocks first, ask questions later so to speak.

"Oh, no." Wanderer sounded almost stricken.

"Sometimes it was horrible, yeah, but sometimes it was kind of peaceful, too," Danny said. "Not often, though. More on the horrible side than anything. Mostly I was just focused on getting home."

"You were far from home, then?"

That was a bit of an understatement, but Danny didn't want to tell everybody his entire story just yet and so he just nodded. "Yeah. Far. Really, really far."

"I'm far from home, too," Wanderer confided. "But being here helps. It helps a lot. Everybody's really nice, even if some of them didn't like me at first."

He couldn't imagine anybody not liking the tiny blonde; she was adorable and her enthusiasm was rather infectious. "Oh, really?"

She nodded solemnly, or at least as solemnly as she ever got. "I was a stranger to them, and strangers worry them. But then they got to know me and everything was fine."

Someone had figured out herself that it was best not to share the entire story right off the bat.

"There's hope for me, then," Danny said, and there was no mistaking the relief in his voice. He wasn't planning on staying here forever, but he wanted to be at least tolerated for however long he was there.

Wanderer nodded. "They're just not used to finding people on their trips out, is all. Not people they can bring back with them, anyway. It's only happened a couple of times, and even then they were... not friendly people. But you're friendly, so it'll be okay once they've had some time to start getting used to you."

Somehow, Danny had a suspicion it wasn't going to be that easy. He appreciated her attempt at soothing him, though.

"So what's the story with Melanie?" he asked. "She seems so... sad." He knew the basics, but he wanted to know more -- and he had a feeling Wanderer would tell him.

"She had someone. Jared. They went through a lot together," Wanderer said. "Not all of it good. Some of it was really bad, actually. But they were together and they were in love, and then he died."

"How did he die?" Danny asked.

"Rockslide," she replied, figuring that much information couldn't hurt. It was Melanie's story to tell, but that vague detail wasn't speaking out of turn. She hoped, anyway.

Danny winced. "She told me he was gone, but she didn't tell me how," he said. "I didn't push for it. I figured, if she's lost someone, she doesn't need me asking her a thousand and one questions about it." He quirked a smile. "Was kind of hard not to ask her as many questions as I wanted to, though," he admitted.

"Why's that?" Wanderer asked.

"I was a constable -- a police officer," he explained. "Questions kind of come with the territory."

Wanderer couldn't imagine something like a police officer in her world. The Souls had no need. When the rare disagreement came up, it never progressed to any level that would need police authority, not that it existed for her people.

"She doesn't talk about it much," Wanderer said. "He's been gone for a few months, and she's only just now starting to open up again."

"If this Jared was as important to her as I think he was, I can't say as I blame her."

"He was very important to her," Wanderer said. "She loved him and he loved her."

"She said as much," Danny said with a nod. "She seems so... sad. Withdrawn."

"And that's not Mel at all, either of those things," Wanderer said.

"No, I imagine not," Danny said. He hadn't known Melanie long, but already he could tell there was something about her. That she was a strong woman when she wasn't being crushed by the depths of her own grief. That she was only at the start of an incredibly long, incredibly difficult journey.

It didn't take them long to reach the kitchen. Danny couldn't help being more than a little apprehensive as to how the others would react to him. After all, he _was_ , technically speaking, an intruder, and while he wasn't afraid he also didn't want to actively bother anybody.

Just another sign of how he'd changed over the past year -- the old Danny Quinn wouldn't have cared so much about the reactions of people he didn't even know.

"Everybody, this is Danny," Wanderer announced, her delicate voice managing to carry even in the roomy area.

"Hey," someone greeted distractedly from where they were busy with a pile of dough. "I'd shake your hand but I'm all covered in flour right now." She looked up and gave a brief grin before going back to the dough.

"That's Lily," Wanderer supplied. "And that's... Kyle, Ian, Jamie, Andy, and Sunny."

Danny knew the men already; they'd been four-fifths of the scouting team that'd brought him back to the caves. He gave them a casual nod, sparing a smile for the brunette woman Wanderer had called Sunny. Sunny just blushed and ducked her head.

"What're you working on?" Wanderer asked Lily curiously.

"Biscuits for lunch," the other woman replied. "If there's going to be enough for everybody, I need to get started on them now."

"Yum!"

Danny couldn't help laughing softly at the expression on Wanderer's face. She seemed like one of those people who took joy in everything, even the little things. And with there being precious little joy to be found in this place, he figured you had to take it where you could get it.

 

The actual breakfast, however, didn't go as well as the before it had. Nobody was surprised, really. After all, Danny, _was_ new, and the fact that Wanderer seemed to like him would only carry him so far.

Then again, Danny didn't even seem to be aware of the more than vague distrust in the air. He sat at the table, next to Melanie, talking to her and seeming completely focused on her every word. If it bothered him, he didn't show it.

Jeb watched the other man thoughtfully. Danny hadn't been there very long and already Melanie seemed quite taken with him. Oh, he was pretty sure nobody else noticed it -- least of all Melanie herself -- but she was family. He was good at reading family.

He was glad, really, that Melanie was allowing herself to notice another guy in some way, even if it was just finding him fascinating to talk to. Though the expression on her face hinted at more, and that worried Jeb a little. She was still hurting over losing Jared, and he didn't want to see her get hurt.

Though something told him that Danny Quinn wasn't the kind of man to hurt a woman. He seemed honorable, and honor was something Jeb prized above just about all else.

And that would be when Ian leaned over and interrupted Jeb's reverie. "Something on your mind?"

"What makes you think that?" Jeb asked, coughing slightly.

"You're watching them."

"Can I help it if I'm protective?" Jeb replied calmly. "No, I'm just checking out the new guy. Seeing how he interacts with Mel tells me a lot, actually."

"It does?" Ian tilted his head and looked at Jeb curiously.

"It does," Jeb echoed. "I see the way he's focused on her, and I know that he's the kind of man who gives something his entire attention. I see the way he's casually flirting with her but not pushing, and I know that he's the kind of man who'll try to flirt but who'll back away if it's not received well. And I see the way Melanie's listening to him and I realize that maybe a little male attention's what she needs."

"We give her attention," Ian said, though he knew what Jeb meant.

"Someone who isn't one of us," Jeb amended. "Because she's been a part of the group for so long that she's used to us. We're family. He's an outsider. And yes, she's wary of attention from an outsider but it's also confirmation that she's the kind of girl worth being interested in."

"Because her and Jared, their relationship came about from running and hiding and sheer survival," Ian said. "This... if anything happens, it's a chance for things to grow normally. Naturally." He laughed softly and shook his head. "Not that any of us even knows what normal is anymore."

"Exactly, on all counts." Jeb gave the younger man a small smile.

"Are you going to say anything to either of them?"

"About this, no," Jeb replied. "I'll keep an eye on it, but I won't say anything. If more develops, then probably. But I do plan on talkin' to him. After all, this is my place here. Just because I'm trusting you and a couple of the others to start runnin' this place more doesn't mean I've completely taken leave of my senses."

"You sure?" Ian teased. "Some of the others might argue that Kyle being in any kind of in charge position _is_ you taking leave of your senses."

"And I'll tell them exactly what I'm tellin' you," Jeb replied. "And the same thing I've told everyone before about things. My place, my rules, and if you don't like it, then tough."

"Settle, old man," Kyle called from a couple seats away, grinning.

"Shut up," Ian called back. "Can't you see we're having a private conversation here?"

"You want private anything in this place?" Kyle snorted and gave a faint roll of his eyes. "Yeah, like _that's_ gonna happen."

He had a point, Ian had to admit. For all its sprawling vastness, people did have a way of tripping over each other there. But it was home and they were family, and somehow it all just worked.

Which didn't mean it wasn't a giant pain in the ass sometimes. Okay, more than sometimes. But again, family. Sometimes family was like that.

 _Like now,_ he observed, as Kyle continued gently ribbing Jeb. Kyle was definitely the annoying sibling. He himself was the quieter one. The more peaceful one...

... even if he _was_ tempted to throw a roll at his brother's head.


	3. Chapter 3

After breakfast was when Danny finally had a meeting with Jeb. "Surprised I haven't met you sooner, seeing as you're the one in charge and all," he said.

Jeb nodded. "I'm the one in charge, yeah, but I'm of an age where it's important to start teaching the others how to be in charge -- and that includes lettin' them make some of the decisions," he said. "If the ones who brought you here hadn't liked you, if Melanie minded being around you, then things would have been different."

"You'd have kicked me out?" Danny wasn't sure he liked that idea.

Jeb shook his head. "No, but you wouldn't have any freedom," he said bluntly. "You'd be confined to your room. Probably not forever, just until the others got more used to you being here. I don't think Wanderer would've let them confine you for too long -- she knows what it's like to be stuck in one of these rooms. Well, actually, that little thing was in one of the supply rooms, and those aren't much in the way of spacious and roomy."

Danny bristled at the idea of someone doing that to Wanderer. Jeb noticed and laughed softly. "See she's gotten to you already," he said. "Everyone likes Wanderer. Girl's hard not to like -- and most of the people here aren't terribly well inclined towards the Souls."

"I can't blame them, honestly," Danny admitted. "Just from what Melanie's told me about them..." He trailed off as two and two were put together to make four. "Wanderer's one of them?"

"You didn't notice her eyes?"

"Was too busy looking around at everything else," Danny said honestly.

"Now, don't go telling her I told you this, but yeah. Girl's a Soul. She's one of the good ones, though," Jeb said. "Always has been."

"I don't get the Souls," Danny said. "I mean, I understand what they are, but... why here? Why Earth?"

"They say that they make better everything they take over," Jeb replied. "They made the world safer, more peaceful... and in the process took away everything that made us human. They took our very lives."

Danny looked at him for a moment. "Everybody here's lost people directly to the Souls, haven't they?" he guessed. "I know everybody's lost people, but... they've all lost people close to them."

Jeb nodded. "Yeah."

"Who did Melanie lose?" Danny questioned.

"Her parents," Jeb said after a moment. "Both of them."

Danny winced again. "I lost my brother," he volunteered. "Not to the Souls, obviously, but I still lost him."

"You'll fit right in, in terms of loss." Not that Jeb wished the loss on the younger man.

"Lucky me."

 

It was late and Danny couldn't sleep. He'd been trying for hours to fall asleep, to no avail. It was a combination of nerves about... well... everything. He was in a strange place, made even stranger by the fact that it was a future none of his people had expected. He wondered what exactly had changed to make this happen, or if _anything_ had changed. Was this a different timeline now or was this just a step on the way to the future he and the others knew about?

Too many things to think about, too many to worry about. He lay there on the mattress, staring at the wall in an attempt to distract himself enough to fall back asleep since he'd been asleep half an hour before. For all of five minutes, but still. It counted. Unfortunately, it also counted as the most sleep he'd gotten all night.

After another twenty minutes of laying there and staring at the wall and occasionally rolling over to stare at the _other_ wall and even once sitting up and burying his face in his hands, Danny got to his feet and started pacing. He had to do something, had to be moving if sleep wasn't going to come. It was what he'd done when stuck in the past, after all. If sleep hadn't come, he'd gotten up and gotten on the move. You took advantage of what you had and the one thing he'd had then was time. Time to move, to hide, to stay safe. Also time to try and figure out how to get home. But it was obvious how well _that_ one had gone.

He couldn't help yet again worrying about Abby and Connor, about what had happened to them. Had they gotten stuck in the past? Had they gotten home somehow, gotten home all right? Were they dead? The not knowing killed him. All he could do was hope and pray that wherever they were, they were all right. It was a poor substitute for getting out there and finding out what the hell had happened, what the hell was going on, but it was all he could do.

So he did it with a vengeance, pacing back and forth as he turned various thoughts over in his mind. He could make this make sense, if only he thought about it enough.

It was entirely possible that this was a step along the way to the future they all knew about, he decided, equally as possible as the idea that it was an alternate timeline. And supposing it was a step along the way, that meant nothing had changed. Which meant he could get back to his team someday and tell them what he knew.

But that someday was not going to be today, or tomorrow, or any other day until he discovered how to reliably predict an anomaly that would lead him home. Time-hopping was stressful enough without the unknown -- and time-hopping was largely _about_ the unknown. Besides, there was the risk of the anomaly leading him to a time and place even worse than what he'd come from. He could end up in the far future again, with the future predators.

He shuddered at the thought. No, the best thing to do was to stay here and bide his time. But if he did that, he'd have to make himself useful. He couldn't just take from these people and their precious resources. He'd have to check with Melanie or Jeb and see what there was that he could do. After all, with as much as there was going on, there had to be _something_ he could help with.

He felt a little calmer now that his mind had worked itself towards some kind of plan. It might not be a very good plan, or a very productive plan in general, but it was all he had at the moment. He'd just bide his time and help out with whatever he could and he'd see where it all went from there.

The one thing he wasn't worried about was making friends. If people warmed to him, wonderful. If not, oh well. He wasn't there to make friends, he was there because they'd pulled him out of the middle of nowhere and wouldn't let him continue on his way on his own. And the idea of giving him supplies and sending him back out on his own had never come up, which Danny had assumed meant it wasn't even up for discussion. So he was stuck there, basically. Stuck in a place he didn't want to be.

But he would sort it out. He had to. He didn't have a choice. And that? Was something Danny didn't like at all.

 

"You look like you could use some company," Melanie ventured. She'd caught up with Danny in the hallway just outside their rooms.

"Not particularly," Danny said with a shrug. "But I won't turn it away if you want to sit with me for a while."

Melanie smiled. "I think I'd like that," she said, following Danny into his room. She left the mattress for him, instead taking up a spot across the small room, up against the wall.

"I don't bite," Danny said, amused. "You _can_ sit a little closer."

"Your room, your bed," Melanie retorted.

Danny looked at her a moment before shrugging and taking a seat.

"How'd your day go?" Melanie asked, tilting her head and looking at Danny. "Settling in okay?"

Danny shrugged again. "It's only been a few days since I got here," he said. "Don't think that's really enough time to figure out if I'm settling in or not."

"Fair enough," Melanie allowed. "What've they got you doing? Jeb put you to work yet?"

Danny shook his head. "He's had me kind of... wandering aimlessly around. With someone right there with me, playing babysitter and tour guide," he said, a trace of annoyance in his voice.

"Who?"

"Wanderer."

"At least you lucked out," Melanie pointed out. "Because it really could've been worse. Could've wound up with one of the guys. And Kyle's not exactly known for his charm and winning personality."

"Yeah, I already figured that one out," Danny said, cracking a faint smile. "He's... interesting."

"That's totally just a polite way of calling him a jackass, isn't it?" Melanie teased. "Don't bother being polite about it; none of us ever do."

"New guy," Danny said simply. "Don't think it'd go over very well if I called him a jackass within my first few days... at least, not to his face."

Melanie laughed. "I like you," she decided. "You've definitely got the sense of humor you'll need to fit in around here."

Danny wasn't entirely sure he wanted to fit in, but he figured it was a good thing that at least one person thought he'd be able to manage it.

 

Danny had been there all of a month before he had his first true nightmare about what he'd gone through. In the way of dreams, it made little sense and yet perfect sense at the same damn time. He woke with a start, shrieking in utter terror.

Melanie had been unable to sleep for some reason she couldn't put her finger on, so she'd been heading down the hall with the intent of seeing if Wanderer was still awake; this meant that she was in the perfect spot to hear Danny's shrieks. Without even thinking, she pushed the curtain aside and let herself into his room, going to his side and dropping to her knees.

"Danny? Danny, talk to me," she said, reaching out to cautiously touch his arm. "Danny, it's Mel. What's wrong?"

He looked at her with wide, stricken eyes. "Mel?"

"It's me," she said, nodding and letting her hand settle against his arm. "What's wrong?"

"Nightmare," he said breathlessly, pushing himself into a sitting position. "Wasn't expecting it. I've been having bad dreams lately, but they haven't ever been that bad."

"What happened?" Melanie asked, shifting into a sitting position. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." Danny shook his head. "I... I can't. I'm sorry."

"Don't be," Melanie soothed, running her hand absently up and down Danny's forearm. "It's all right. Just relax. Whatever happened, it was just a dream. You're awake now and everything's fine."

"Did I wake you up?" he asked. "If I did, I'm sorry." He seemed to be doing a lot of apologizing over this.

"I couldn't sleep," she said. "You probably woke someone up, but it wasn't me."

"Good." And that was when Danny finally became aware of Melanie's hand still on his arm. It was a nice feeling, a reassuring one. He didn't want her to take her hand away, so he didn't call attention to it. Instead he just looked at her and attempted to muster a smile.

That would be when Jamie poked his head into the room. "Everything okay?" he asked, worry on his face. "Heard you down at the other end of the hall." He noticed his sister's hand lingering against Danny's arm and wisely chose to say nothing.

"Nightmare," Melanie said simply.

"Ah," Jamie said. "Got it. Everything okay now?"

Danny nodded. "I'm fine now."

Jamie nodded slightly in return and stepped back, tugging the curtain closed before heading back to his room.

"He going to have a problem with you being in here?" Danny asked.

"Why would he?" Melanie frowned, confused.

"He's a brother. Brothers are strange that way with their sisters."

Melanie shrugged. "He knows I'm just making sure you're okay." And _that_ would be when she realized she still hadn't taken her hand off Danny's arm; she pulled back with a strange reluctance.

Danny couldn't explain the disappointment he felt when she moved her hand, so he pushed it to the side and tried ignoring it. It wasn't that he liked Melanie that way, really it wasn't.

"Want me to stay a while?" Melanie asked, running a hand through her hair. "Just until you feel like going back to sleep again, I mean. I won't be all creepy girl and watch you while you sleep or anything." Even if some tiny part of her wanted to.

"I'd appreciate that," Danny said, feeling a little embarrassed that he had to accept that offer. But he didn't want to be alone just then. Being alone would remind him too much of the past, and that was a reminder he didn't need.

"Mind if I stretch out on the floor?"

"Might as well share the bed," Danny said, moving over. "Tight fit, but we'll make it work."

Melanie stretched out next to Danny, ending up with her head resting against his shoulder. "Sorry," she said apologetically. "Not trying to get all up in your space or anything."

"It's all right," Danny assured her. "I don't mind." It was actually kind of nice, really. It was something normal, and his life didn't exactly have much in the way of normal anymore.

"Okay, then." She shifted position, trying not to curl up against Danny. She couldn't get comfortable, though, and so she finally just went with it. "Sorry," she apologized again. "Not trying to be all invading your space or anything, I swear."

"It's all right, Mel," Danny said, laughing softly. "And I did say it'd be a tight fit." Impulsively, he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her a little closer. "There. That better?"

It was, but she couldn't say that.

"It'll do," she said, putting a bit of tartness into her voice along with a hint of laughter.

"Good," Danny said simply.

Melanie hesitated only slightly before relaxing against Danny. It felt strange to be held by someone besides Jared, but at the same time... it felt good.

She was drifting off before she could have another thought about it.

 

Danny woke early, as he always did -- he never slept more than three or four hours in a stretch, anyway. Something was different than usual, though.

Oh, right. Melanie was still there. Still there and curled up against him, her face buried against his side.

He smiled to himself and shifted slightly, pulling away just a bit. Melanie's reaction was to, in her still sleeping state, move towards Danny and tuck herself against his side again.

Well, looked like he'd be holding her for a while, not that he really had a problem with it. He was just grateful he hadn't woken her up with another of his nightmares or the less-terrifying but still unpleasant bad dreams.

That was why he didn't go back to sleep, or so he told himself. The reality was that he would rather watch Melanie than sleep. She looked so peaceful when she was asleep, so untroubled by anything. It was only when she was awake that the troubles intruded into her life. He didn't know what it was about her, but she gave him the strangest urge to protect her, to do whatever it took to keep her safe.

Only that wasn't his place. He wasn't someone who could worry about her. He wasn't part of her family, close or extended. He didn't have the right to worry like that about her. All the same, though, worry he would.

He'd never done what was expected of him, after all. Why should he start now?

Melanie stirred in his arms, pulling him out of his reverie. "Ssh," he murmured. "Go back to sleep."

"Danny?" She blinked at him sleepily. "What am I doing in your room?"

"You came to check on me after I had a nightmare last night," he said, fighting the urge to brush her hair out of her face.

"Oh, right, yeah." She blinked the sleep away as best she could. "I totally crashed on you, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you really kind of did," he said, smiling faintly.

God, she loved it when he smiled. Forcing that thought away, Melanie said, "I'll go back to my room... just as soon as you let me go."

Danny smiled sheepishly and pulled his arm back. "You're a cuddler, you know that? I tried moving away and you just moved right along with me."

"Sorry," Melanie said, running her fingers through her hair and doing absolutely nothing to tame it. "I'm not used to being held. It's been a while."

"I didn't mind," Danny said after a moment. "It was kind of nice, actually. Made things feel normal."

And normal was in short supply, Melanie knew. Especially around there.

"Glad I could help," she said, managing a faint smile for him as she got to her feet. "I'm gonna head back to my room, though. Don't need anybody giving you trouble for me being in here all night."

"Would they?"

"Kyle probably would." But Kyle was an ass, so he would but he probably wouldn't actually mean anything by it. That was just how he was. She didn't want to take any chances, though.

"And Kyle already dislikes me enough," Danny said. "Let's not give him even more reason."

Melanie stopped in the doorway and looked back at Danny for a moment, smiling almost shyly before disappearing into the hallway.

 

Jamie caught up with Melanie later that morning. "How's Danny?"

"He's fine," Melanie assured her brother. "Just a bad nightmare." Like there was a good kind?

"Do you know what it was about?"

Melanie shook her head. "No, I don't, and he wouldn't say. I wasn't going to push him any."

"Fair enough," Jamie said. "I don't think he'd have said much, anyway. He... the way he woke up screaming, it sounded pretty damn bad."

"He's been through a lot, Jamie," she said quietly. "I don't have to know his entire story to know that much." And she'd managed to read between the lines a little. Whatever he'd seen on the other side of the anomalies had been enough to disturb him profoundly. And she understood that, even if she didn't have the same sort of nightmares. So for that reason alone she'd never push him.

Which didn't mean that she didn't want to know what exactly his nightmares were. But she wasn't going to ask, would never ask. If he told her, it'd be on his own and because he wanted to.

"How long did you end up sticking around?" Jamie asked, running a hand through his shaggy hair.

"Pretty much all night," Melanie said. "It made him feel safe and comfortable having me there, so how could I leave?"

Jamie couldn't argue with that. His sister was a kinder person than she pretended to be nowadays; he didn't blame her in the least for staying with Danny. "Just don't let some of the others find out," he advised. "Kyle will never let you live it down that you were in someone's room all night."

"He says anything and I'll punch him," Melanie said with a shrug. It was how she and Kyle tended to solve their disagreements. He laughed at her, she punched him. It worked for them, oddly.


	4. Chapter 4

It was an early morning for Melanie, whose turn it was in the kitchen. She was the only one in there at the moment -- the others would be filing into the kitchen in about an hour, but she'd been unable to sleep so she'd figured she might as well get up and start getting ready. She'd bathed, dressed, and was now in the kitchen getting things ready to start making breakfast.

Not that you really wanted Melanie cooking, but she did a mean organization and planning on breakfast. And she was damn good at pitching in and helping the others.

"Hey, Mel."

She looked up. "Danny, hey," she said with a slow smile. "What's got you up so early?"

He shrugged. "Nothing much," he said. "Figured I'd wander around a little bit, like usual. Wound up here."

"Well, c'mon in," Melanie said, waving him into the kitchen proper instead of lingering in the doorway.

Danny leaned against the counter, standing next to Melanie idly. "Hope I'm not bothering you."

"Like you'd apologize if you were?" she retorted.

"All right, true," Danny said, cracking a grin. "I like bothering you."

Something in those words made Melanie's stomach do a little flip that wasn't entirely unpleasant. "I don't mind when you bother me."

Danny hesitated for a moment, loathe to ruin the companionable atmosphere. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Melanie said with a nod, leaning against the counter as well. "What is it?"

"You've mentioned that you were Wanderer's host... what was that like?" He hated that he was so curious about it, when it was something that'd caused such pain for Melanie.

Melanie fought a wince. She hadn't expected that to be the question, but she wasn't going to avoid answering it. "It was... odd," she said, running a hand through her hair. "I'm stubborn and willful -- no jokes, please -- and that helped me keep some sort of influence. Most people, once they've got a Soul in them, they're gone. Or they fade away very, very quickly. But with some, the most stubborn and willful, they can manage to keep themselves from fading."

"And you were stubborn enough?"

"I was," Melanie said with a nod. "I just... wasn't going to let some invading alien take over _my_ body. It might not be much, but it's mine, y'know? Nobody gets to use it except me. So when they captured me, I... well, it was after I tried to kill myself."

She hadn't mentioned that part before.

"I'd ask why, but... I would have done the same thing, I think," Danny said after a moment.

"No, you wouldn't have," Melanie said with a shake of her head. "You'd have fought until you dropped."

"Okay, true," Danny allowed. "But what you did... it was your only way out, wasn't it?"

Melanie nodded slightly. "Yeah. It was."

"Then how could you be faulted for it?"

"Nobody else faulted me for it, thank God," Melanie said. "But I did. I faulted myself for it."

"Why?"

"Because I didn't jump from high enough up," Melanie said. "If I was going to kill myself, I should've done it right."

"But if you'd done it that way, then they wouldn't have put Wanderer into you," Danny pointed out. "They would've put her into somebody else."

"And the Seeker wouldn't have been trying to find my family." She would have done anything to protect her family, had _tried_ doing the most drastic thing imaginable -- and it hadn't worked. In her darker moments, she hated herself for failing.

Danny looked at her in silence for a moment. "You wish that you'd died," he said finally.

"Yes and no," Melanie said awkwardly, looking away so she wouldn't see the disappointment she knew must be in his eyes.

There was no disappointment, only worry and confusion. "Why? You were happy before, so... why now?"

"Because I'm tired of the pain and the hurt," she said, biting the inside of her cheek. "I'd rather never have known Jared than feel the pain of having lost him."

Danny impulsively wrapped an arm around Melanie's shoulders, pulling her close against him. "The pain will pass," he said softly. "One day, you'll be able to look around and realize that the pain's not quite so painful anymore. I can't say it'll ever completely go away, but there will come a day when you can see the other side of it."

Melanie sighed and leaned against Danny. "What if that day never comes?" she asked, hating the vulnerable tone in her voice. "What if I hurt forever?"

"Then your friends and family will be there for you," he replied. "They'll love you no matter what." He paused. "Though I don't recommend ever letting Wanderer know you wish you were dead. I get the distinct impression that'd crush her."

"I won't. And... I don't really. Not usually, at least," Melanie amended. "Today's just one of my bad days."

Danny knew how that went. "I know what it's like to lose a loved one," he said. "If you ever want to talk about it, you know where to find me."

"Thanks," Melanie said, leaning her head against Danny's shoulder. "I can't promise I'll take you up on that offer, but... thanks."

It was nice knowing he cared. Nicer than it probably should have been.

They stood like that for a while, neither of them was entirely sure how long, and were only interrupted by Wanderer coming into the kitchen.

Danny pulled away, ruffling Melanie's hair affectionately. "Remember what I said, okay?"

"I will." She nodded solemnly. "I promise."

 

Danny had taken it upon himself to try teaching Wanderer how to fight. The task was an understandably daunting one, given how tender-hearted she was. But when he'd pointed out that she didn't have to actually _use_ whatever he taught her and that sometimes it was just nice knowing how to do something even if you didn't actually use that knowledge, she'd doubtfully agreed to give it a try.

Melanie sat in the room with them, watching them both and trying not to pay too much attention to Danny in particular. It was difficult, though. No matter how much time she spent with him, she wanted to know more about him. He didn't talk much about his past, though, not that she really blamed him. He'd been through a lot in his life, especially over the past year or so. What bits and pieces he'd told her directly -- and what information she'd gleaned from things he'd said in passing -- told her that Danny Quinn was a weary, battle-scarred man who needed a chance to heal.

Of course, this wasn't the best time for it to be happening. She knew he was antsy about getting back to his time, knew he had warnings to pass on to his team. But if he did find a way home... she was really going to miss him. He'd become her friend.

Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to one of the few paperbacks she had in her possession. It was battered and dog-eared and well damn worn, but it was hers and she loved it if for no other reason than that. It wasn't even a particularly _good_ story, but she wasn't going to complain. Reading material was scarce, after all. Good material, anyway, from before. Most of what surfaced nowadays was written by the Souls.

Of course, some of that was fascinating in its own way; on one of the last trips out, someone had managed to find a couple books detailing the history of the planets the Souls had been to besides Earth. Everyone was sure it was whitewashed; after all, the Souls didn't see anything wrong with what they did. But it was still fascinating to read. But not as fascinating as hearing Wanderer tell stories of her time on those planets, of course. She could make everything just come alive.

Melanie glanced up just in time to see Wanderer land a kick to Danny's stomach. The Soul looked like she was about ready to throw up in horror, but Danny just looked proud. "Way to go," she called over. "That was a good one."

"I didn't hurt you, did I?" Wanderer asked Danny worriedly. "Oh, I knew this was a bad idea."

Danny shook his head. "You didn't kick me hard enough for that," he said. "However, that would be more than enough to distract the majority of people, and for you that'd be a good thing. You don't need to know how to fight so much as you need to know how to distract someone long enough to get away."

Wanderer thought about it a moment and nodded. "I can work with that," she said. "Because distracting someone doesn't hurt them. Well... much." She didn't like the idea of hurting someone at all, but she'd come to realize over the years that there were still people in the world you didn't want to be friends with, people who might hurt her or her loved ones. And while she might not fight for herself, she would fight for her friends and loved ones in a heartbeat. She was still a peaceful person, but like Danny had said, it was knowledge well worth having. If she had to use it someday, well, she'd deal with that day when it came.

"Very good," Melanie said, giving Wanderer a thumbs up. "I'm so proud of you." Because she knew how much it'd taken for Wanderer to agree to Danny's offer to teach her. She wondered if Danny knew how much it'd taken for Wanderer to agree.

"Okay, I think that's all we need to cover for now," Danny said, running a hand through his hair. "Some basic self-defense moves and now you're all set."

"Thank you, Danny," Wanderer said, smiling shyly. "Even if it's something I'll never use... I kind of like knowing it." Because it was such a human thing to know how to do. It made her feel more human than Soul, but in the very good kind of way.

Plus it didn't hurt that she knew that when the others saw her trusting Danny with something so important, they would in turn start to trust him more. She wanted the others to trust Danny more. He was nice. He didn't deserve people being suspicious of him.

But, people being people, she knew, they would be suspicious of him until they no longer were.

 

Melanie and Danny sat in a quiet, companionable silence in his room. They'd quickly developed a routine over the past several weeks of being in his room or in hers and just sitting together. Sometimes they talked, sometimes they didn't, but they always felt comfortable and at home no matter what they did.

"Tell me about your family," Danny said softly, after a while.

Melanie sighed. "What do you want to know?" she asked reluctantly.

"Anything you want to tell me."

The response was routine, the response he always gave when she asked what he wanted to know. Because as many questions as he had, he wasn't going to push her into telling him anything. He wasn't like that. It was tempting, but it just wasn't his style.

"Well..." Melanie trailed off, frowning thoughtfully. "It was just me and Jamie and our parents, no other siblings. And he's the little brother by a few years, obviously, so before the Souls came we were at that stage in life where we didn't always get along. We fought a lot sometimes. Over stupid stuff, too, like him getting in my way or trying to tag along when I wanted to go play with my friends."

"As siblings tend to do," Danny said with a nod.

"Yeah, exactly. It was all typical stuff, stuff we took for granted. And then the Souls came and everything was different. It was me and Jamie on our own and there wasn't any time for not getting along anymore." Melanie's voice was uncharacteristically soft. "I think he hated me at first, for a little while. Not that I blame him, though."

"What makes you say that?"

"He was a little boy who'd just lost his parents. He was terrified of everything and he lashed out in the only way he could," she said. "But he got through it when he realized I needed him just as much as he needed me. Because it was a scary, scary new world we were in but as long as I still had him, everything would be okay."

"No wonder you're still so protective of him," Danny observed casually. "You let him do what he needs to do, because he's not a little kid anymore, but you still worry."

"Exactly," Melanie said with a nod. "Kind of like how you're always your parents' little kid no matter how old you get and they get. If my parents were still alive, I'd _still_ be their little girl and I'm in my twenties."

Danny picked up on the quiet in her voice. "I'm sorry," he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and hugging her close. "I didn't mean to bring up a sore subject."

"It's okay," Melanie said, stiffening slightly before relaxing against Danny. "It feels good to talk about it, actually. Because I don't really have anybody I _can_ talk to about it. Everybody here, we're so wrapped up in worrying about each other and about our survival that there's not a whole lot of time for just... talking like this."

"Does that mean I'm keeping you from your work?" Danny asked suddenly. It had never even occurred to him that he might be keeping her from a more important task. She was just always there to spend time with him, to help him learn something new or to sit with him and say nothing when he was feeling down about things again. When he wasn't doing something, she was spending time with him and he'd never even stopped to think it might be taking her away from something. A little more selfish than he usually was.

"No, no," Melanie said with a quick shake of her head in the negative. "Jeb's pretty much told me to keep an eye on you, seeing as we get along so well." Even after a month and a half or thereabouts, things still weren't always easy for Danny, and Melanie knew that Jeb just preferred someone to make sure nothing went _too_ hard for Danny even though Danny was fully capable of taking care of himself.

"If I didn't know better, I'd think the old man was trying to be a matchmaker," Danny teased.

Melanie was quiet for a moment. "He wouldn't do that to me."

Danny swore. "God, Mel, I'm sorry. I just stuck my foot in my mouth, didn't I?"

She laughed softly. "A little, but that's okay," she assured him. "You didn't mean to. And besides, all I meant was that if Jeb was trying to set us up he'd just shove us in a room and tell us to sort ourselves out already. He's not exactly one for subtlety sometimes. Or, you know, ever." She thought briefly of when he'd introduced Wanderer to the others. That hadn't been at all subtle, either. In its planning, perhaps, but not in the execution. He'd known exactly what he was doing, even if Wanderer and Melanie hadn't caught onto it until after the fact.

"Yeah, he _is_ rather up-front, isn't he?" Danny grinned. "I like that about him, though."

"Most people do," Melanie said, returning the grin and leaning her head against his shoulder to show that there was no harm done by what he'd said a moment ago. "Some people have a hard time dealing with it. He _can_ be a bit abrasive."

"He doesn't pull his punches," Danny said with a shrug. "That's... not always such a bad thing."

"No," Melanie agreed. "It's not."


	5. Chapter 5

It'd been five months since Danny's arrival and people were slowly warming to him. Not that Danny was overly concerned with whether or not people liked him; Melanie and Jeb didn't have any problems with him and that was all that mattered, as far as he was concerned.

"How you settlin' in so far, kid?" Jeb asked, catching Danny in one of the corridors.

"Kid?" Danny snorted.

"Everyone here's a kid compared to me," Jeb pointed out with a faint smile. "Seriously, though, everyone treatin' you fair?"

"Some of them are a little more wary than others, but nobody's been rude to me," Danny said. "Some of them have been downright kind."

"You've been spendin' a lot of time with my Mel."

Danny fought back a wince. "She understands me," was all he said. He wouldn't defend himself or his actions, not even to Jeb.

"Relax, I'm not gonna bite your head off or anything," Jeb said. "Personally, I think a little male attention's gonna be good for her. Bring her out of her shell a little."

"This is Mel when she's hiding in her shell?" Danny snorted. "I think that might make me a little bit scared of her, then," he joked.

"Ah, she's nothin' to be scared of," Jeb said. "She's more bark than bite. Of course, that just means her bite's pretty fierce when it comes out. Not much brings it out in her, though."

"Hurting the people who're important to her would be the quickest way to do it, I imagine," Danny said. "I'm the same way."

"Hurting Jamie," Jeb corrected. "Which isn't to say she wouldn't react badly if someone were to hurt any of the others, but hurting her brother would be a surefire way to earn yourself an ass-kickin'."

"She and Jamie were alone together for a long time, weren't they?"

"Long enough," Jeb replied. "Too long, if you ask me."

"What exactly happened to their parents?" Danny asked. "Melanie won't tell me that part of her past. I know they died, but..." He shrugged. "I don't want to pry. I can be pushy on occasion, but I'm not an asshole."

Jeb was silent for a long moment, long enough to make Danny think he'd overstepped his bounds. Then Jeb spoke.

"The Souls got both of her parents early on in the invasion. But the part that hurt was that their father -- well, what'd once been their father -- led the other Souls right to Melanie and Jamie."

Danny swore softly. "And there was no chance of getting him back?" He figured as much, from conversations he'd had with Mel and some of the others, but he had to ask anyway.

Jeb shook his head. "Most people, once the Souls have you, you're as good as gone. It takes a strong personality to not be overwhelmed, to not give in."

"And that's Melanie, for certain." Danny smiled faintly.

Jeb heard something in Danny's voice but said nothing. If Danny didn't realize how he felt about Melanie, then Jeb certainly wasn't going to step in and say something.

Not yet, at any rate. He'd give the youngsters time to figure it out for themselves. _Some_ time, at least.

"That's Melanie," he agreed with a nod. "It wasn't easy for her, though."

"No, it wasn't. She's told me some of what it was like when she was serving as Wanderer's host, but she hasn't told me all of it." Danny shrugged. "And I wasn't going to pry. Something like that, it's personal and private and not something she'd feel comfortable sharing with me if I tried pushing her into it."

"Smart man," Jeb said, giving Danny and appraising look. "Mel's never liked being pushed around. You corner her about something she doesn't want to talk about, she'll just clam up tighter than anything."

"If she wants to tell me more, she'll tell me," Danny said optimistically. "If not... well, I know enough to know that it wasn't an easy time for her or for Wanderer. I won't push Mel, and I won't push Wanderer either."

Which didn't mean he wouldn't ask the occasional question from time to time. It was the constable in him. He'd just respect it if either woman was unwilling to answer -- though he had the feeling he'd get more out of Wanderer. The young woman liked helping people and would bend over backwards to do something if she thought it'd help. He wasn't willing to manipulate her to get the answers he was looking for -- that was a tactic more suited to someone like Helen Cutter -- but he was definitely willing to ask questions of her before he asked Melanie.

"You fit right in here," Jeb said after looking at Danny for a moment. "I was worried at first, but now... not so much."

"High praise, sir," Danny said. "Coming from you and all."

Jeb just shrugged. "I call 'em like I see 'em. If I didn't think you were doin' a good job and pullin' your own weight and all, I'd let you know."

Danny believed him.

 

Melanie sat with the other women, indulging in a rare moment of sitting around and simply watching the men work instead of working alongside them. Well, the others were indulging. Melanie was just sort of sitting and staring off into the distance.

"He fits right in, you know." This was from Lacey. "He's a hard worker."

"Yeah, he is," someone else agreed. "And he's not bad to look at. Not handsome, really, but striking."

"He's nice, too," Wanderer said. "He's always so concerned about Melanie."

Andie -- the Healer, the one whose name had turned out to be Candy before she'd decided she wanted a change -- laughed softly. "That's because he likes her."

"He does?" Wanderer hadn't noticed that, only the way Danny was so protective of Melanie. The way he hated to see anything bothering her. The way he went most everywhere she went.

So all right, maybe Wanderer _had_ noticed, in her own way. She just hadn't put things together as quickly as the others.

"He does." Sunny nodded. "He likes her the way you and Ian like each other." It was obvious, really. Why didn't they see it?

"How can you tell?" Wanderer asked curiously.

"I just know," Sunny said stubbornly.

"I can hear you guys, you know," Melanie said from where she sat. "And not that it matters any, but Danny doesn't like me like that. I'm just his friend. His best friend here. That's it."

Lacey made an indelicate snorting sound. "He's gone on you, Melanie. Absolutely gone on you."

"Oh, he is not!" Melanie protested... even as she turned her head slightly to watch Danny.

"Does this mean she likes him too?" Sunny asked quietly.

Melanie would've said something pithy if she'd heard that, but she was too busy watching Danny thoughtfully. They were right, he'd fit right in with the others. Seeing the way he fit in, the way he worked so easily with everyone... it made Melanie smile, like it did just then -- and Melanie didn't smile much anymore.

What smiling she did do was largely because of Danny. Part of her felt like she was betraying Jared, but she wasn't moving on with Danny, she was just moving past the pain because of him. Jared would be happy she was no longer so hurt, so miserable.

But there was a little part of Melanie that viewed Danny as something more than a friend. Not as an actual love interest or anything like that... just as potential. And that unnerved her. Because she didn't _want_ to move on. She _wanted_ to stay loyal to Jared.

At the same time, though, the idea of Danny was vaguely appealing. More than vaguely, if she was honest with herself. He was a good man, a decent man. He knew her story and hadn't run screaming from it. He was the kind of man she should move on with, if she moved on.

_When_ she moved on. Because the others, in their misguided attempts to be helpful, said it'd happen. As scary as it was, the idea wasn't _quite_ so scary anymore.

 

Danny wiped the sweat from his brow and stood up, surveying his work. He still wasn't used to planting, but it was physical labor and he'd always been surprisingly good at that. Even if he hadn't been, it was still something productive. Something that contributed. Something that made him feel like he was pulling his own weight.

"Girls are watching us again," Jamie said with a grin and a slight wave. "Think Mel's watching you."

Danny glanced over towards the women and promptly caught Mel's eye. He smiled slightly and gave her a nod of greeting that was just as slight.

"You like her, don't you?"

Danny was surprised by the question, though he really shouldn't have been. "What makes you ask that?"

"Just the way I've seen you act around her."

Danny tensed slightly. "And how's that?"

"Protective. Concerned." Jamie grinned again. "You follow her practically everywhere."

"I do not," Danny protested. "We just happen to spend a lot of time in the same places." That was weak, and even he knew it.

Really, though, it was just that he preferred to spend the majority of his time with Melanie. They clicked in a way he'd never clicked with anybody before. He wasn't sure what it meant, he just knew that he was damn well going to enjoy it.

Jamie just made a skeptical noise. "Right." He laughed. "You know Ian? Well, we ever tell you how he followed Wanderer around? He followed her around like you follow Melanie around."

"Kid, I don't follow Mel around. Don't make me beat your head in with this trowel." There was amusement in Danny's voice as he said it, though.

Jamie laughed. "I'd like to see you try, old man."

"Old man?" Danny said in mock outrage. "Excuse me, but I am not old."

"You just keep telling yourself that."

 

Jamie loped up to his sister. "You okay, Mel?" he asked, worry tinging his voice. "You look... upset."

"I'm not upset," Melanie assured him. "I'm just... contemplative, I guess."

"About what?"

"Danny." It felt good to admit even that much. "I think..." She laughed sheepishly. "I think I may have feelings for him, Jamie. Or might be starting to, at least."

Privately Jamie thought his sister was an idiot if it'd taken her this long to admit it to herself. Aloud, all he said was, "That's not a bad thing, though."

"No, it's not," Melanie said with an agreeing shake of her head. "It's a little scary, though. More than a little."

"Why?"

"Because it means I'm moving on. Well, I'm starting to. And I'm interested in a guy that I just shouldn't be interested in."

"And why shouldn't you be interested in him?" Jamie asked. "What law is there saying you can't be?"

"He's not from here, Jamie. He doesn't... he doesn't get what it means. What we all have to do just to survive from one day to the next." Melanie sighed. "He gets so protective of me. So ridiculously protective of me. He nearly got in a fight with Kyle the other day when Kyle was just being a jackass like he usually is."

"That bothers you?"

"It should," Melanie said. "I hate people fighting my battles for me, you know that. I always have, ever since I was little. But Danny stepping in like he did... being so overprotective like he always is... God help me, I like it a lot."

"Because you trust him," Jamie said gently. "Because he reminds you of Jared a little, too."

"I didn't like it when Jared tried getting overprotective," Melanie said. "I always fought him when he did."

"No, you didn't like it," Jamie agreed. "But you loved him anyway. I'm just saying there are things in Danny that remind you of Jared and they've helped make you more comfortable with Danny."

Melanie couldn't argue with it when he put it that way. "They both share a certain fierceness," she said. "And a determination to do things the way they think they should be done. Danny's a little more of a loose cannon, but I like that about him. Jared got too hung up on rules that don't exist anymore and haven't for years."

She winced; Jamie caught it. "What's wrong?"

"I shouldn't have said that, about Jared and rules. It's not fair to him."

"Maybe, maybe not," Jamie said gently. "It was the truth, though. I loved Jared like a brother. He was awesome and I'm always going to remember him and miss him. But he had faults, Mel. We all saw them, even you. You accepted them, though, because you loved him. But loving him didn't mean those faults went away. Just meant you were more willing to work with them."

"And God, was that a pain in the ass sometimes," Melanie said. "Like when he wanted to wait and I didn't. I appreciated that he wanted to. It was nice having him act like a gentleman. But it wasn't so nice when he got so stubborn about it."

"He got stubborn and opinionated about stuff a lot," Jamie said. "He knew when not to let it interfere with the greater good, but... yeah, he was pretty damn stubborn."

"And Danny's got a stubborn streak a mile wide sometimes." Melanie smiled fondly as she said it, though. "But... we all do."

"Yeah." Jamie nodded. "We all do.

"And even though they might be stubborn about different things... it's like you said, that stubborn streak is something that's drawn me to Danny. Except in him, I like it. Why? Why do I like it in him when it drove me batshit in Jared?"

Jamie shrugged. "I've never been in love, but it seems to me that it just doesn't make sense most of the time," he said. "Trying to figure it out makes all the joy go out of it. So don't think about it too hard."

"Okay, when did I say I'm in love with him?" Melanie asked, making a face at her brother. "All I said was I think I have feelings for him. Does that _have_ to mean I'm in love with him?"

"No," Jamie allowed. "Of course it doesn't. But you've never had the chance to have a normal relationship. None of us have, really. So now that you _do_ have that chance, you don't know what to do with it."

"No, I don't," Melanie admitted, completely unable to argue with that part of what Jamie was saying. "I don't know what to do about any of it."

"You'll figure it out, Mel." Jamie grinned. "You hate not knowing stuff, after all. You'll figure it out if for no other reason than to stop the not knowing."

Melanie just groaned and rolled her eyes. She had to admit he had a point, though.


	6. Chapter 6

Danny wasn't at all surprised when Melanie poked her head through the curtain that was his door. "Hey," he greeted, lifting his hand in a brief nod as he turned his attention back to the dog-eared paperback he'd been reading.

"Put the book down," Melanie said with a grin. "We're drafting you."

"For what?" Danny asked, looking at her curiously.

"Soccer game," she said, still grinning. "Think they might try and make you team captain, since Kyle's sidelined with that twisted ankle."

"Sounds good to me," he said with a shrug, marking his place before setting the book aside. He wasn't much for soccer, but it was doing something that kept him active and kept his mind off certain things he didn't exactly want to think about. Or at least, he didn't want to think about them when the object of those thoughts was right there with him.

They headed for the recreation area, getting there just as the others finished setting up the field.

"You know, it still amazes me that even in a cave system like this, you guys still have a place where you can do this," he said, raking his fingers through hair that was starting to get a little long again -- though nowhere near the level of horrendous mullet he'd had when he first arrived.

"What can I say?" Melanie shrugged. "There has to be a way to keep everyone entertained. Would _you_ want to deal with all of us if we couldn't work our frustrations out somehow?"

Half a dozen thoughts ran through Danny's head, all of them dirty; wisely, he chose to say none of them. All he said was, "Good point. I've seen you when you can't work out or whatever. It's not pretty."

"Shut it, Quinn."

Danny laughed and wrapped an arm around Melanie's shoulders, hugging her close. "Fiesty. I like it."

"I'm thrilled," Melanie said dryly, though her eyes were dancing playfully. She elbowed Danny in the side and pulled away. "Hands off."

"No fair."

"Who said I'm fair?"

 

"Something wrong?" Danny asked as they walked. "You seem a little down."

"Not down," Melanie said, linking her arm through his. "Just thoughtful."

"Anything you can share?" he asked. "Anything you _want_ to share?"

"Not yet, but when I do, you'll be the first," she assured him.

"Okay, then." Danny smiled at her. "Just so long as nothing's wrong. I'd like to know if I have to start worrying or not."

"Nothing's wrong, I know that much," she told him, pleasantly surprised to discover that it was true. For all her worrying about her feelings, nothing was actually _wrong_. Because Danny was a good man, the kind of man Jared would want her to be with if she couldn't be with him. And maybe she shouldn't be thinking so much about what Jared would want, but thinking that way had gotten her to a point where she could admit that maybe moving on wouldn't be so bad if it were with the right person.

It was _finding_ that right person that'd be the trouble. But something told her that maybe Danny could be that person, and that scared her. She didn't want to ruin what they had. His friendship meant more to her than almost anything. If she lost that, she didn't know what she would do.

"Well, just so long as nothing's wrong," Danny said, pulling his arm away from hers but only so he could wrap that arm around her shoulders and tug her up against his side.

"Nothing's wrong," Melanie promised, relaxing against him.

It wasn't at all unusual for Danny to spend time in Melanie's room, or for her to spend time in his, so when she followed him in neither of them thought anything of it.

Well, she didn't. Danny, however, saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of.

Melanie whimpered softly as Danny pushed her up against the wall. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his head down for a kiss. She didn't know what to say and so said nothing, instead concentrating on the way he felt against her. It'd been months since she'd been with anybody -- and she'd only ever been with Jared.

Danny pulled back after a moment, but only to catch his breath. "I've wanted to kiss you for weeks," he confessed sheepishly.

"Really?" Melanie couldn't imagine that. "Didn't think you looked at me like that."

"I did," he said, kissing her again. "I do."

"I had no clue," she said, whimpering softly and tangling a hand in his hair.

"Good. I didn't want you to know." He toyed with the frayed hem of her t-shirt. "It didn't seem fair to you."

"Why's that?"

"You're still mourning Jared."

"It's been almost a year, Danny," Melanie said gently. "I'm always going to be mourning him."

"I know. That's why I haven't wanted to say anything." Danny slid his hand up under her shirt. "I know he's always going to be in your heart and I don't want to make you think I'm trying to push him out."

"I don't think that," Melanie assured him, shivering at his touch. "I don't think that at all. You could never do that."

Danny's hand slid up to cup a breast gently. "I couldn't live with it if you thought it of me, though."

Melanie let out a soft, keening whimper and arched into Danny's touch. "You're my best friend, Danny. I know you'd never hurt me. I trust you."

Danny went still at that. He knew Melanie didn't give her trust easily. "Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you for that."

"For what?" Melanie was too distracted by his hand on her and the incredible way it was making her feel.

"For trusting me."

"How could I not trust you?" She kissed him impatiently, her hands moving down to rest against his chest. "I always trusted you, even at first. I just wasn't very good at showing it."

"I don't blame you, though." Danny nipped at her lower lip. "I was new. And you were civil to me. More than civil, honestly."

"I think some of the others know that you're interested in me," Melanie said with a soft moan. "Lacey, Sunny, Wanderer... maybe a couple of the others."

"I don't mind if you don't."

At the moment, all Melanie could think about was Danny's hands on her and making sure he didn't stop touching her. "Please," she whispered. "Please, Danny."

Danny was torn; on one hand, she was still mourning Jared. On the other hand, she was a beautiful woman who wanted him even with all his instabilities and awkwardness. Decision made, Danny pulled back just enough to tug Melanie's shirt up impatiently.

"Off with this, then."

Melanie shrugged the shirt off quickly and let it drop to the floor. Grinning impishly, she made sure her bra soon followed.

All Danny could do for a moment was look at her with wide eyes. "Beautiful," he whispered.

She reached for the hem of Danny's t-shirt. "You're a little overdressed," she said softly. "Best we get you out of this, I think."

Danny whimpered softly and nodded, helping Melanie get his shirt up over his head.

Melanie touched Danny's chest with one hand, fingers skimming lightly over his skin. "You've got scars," she said. "Not just these. But... inside."

"More than my share, I think."

"It's why we're so good together." She rested her hand against his chest lightly.

"I think you're right." Danny tipped her head up, kissing her gently, almost tenderly.

Melanie's other hand tugged at the button of Danny's jeans, undoing them and getting his zipper down. From there, it was a matter of moments until they were both naked. Impatient now, Melanie tried to pull him against her.

Danny shook his head slightly and pulled Melanie away from the wall, moving towards his mattress. "I'm not taking you up against the wall," he said. "Not this time. It's not dignified."

"Oh, screw dignity sometimes," Melanie said, even as she moved to lay on the mattress, holding a hand up to Danny. "Just take me already."

Danny didn't need further encouragement; he grinned at her as he joined her on the mattress, moving over her and simply resting against her for a moment. "Are you sure about this?" he asked quietly. "It's something you can't take back."

"Who says I'll want to take it back?" she countered. "I know what I want, Danny, and I want you. I don't care if you're rough or gentle, I just want _you_."

He hesitated only a second before nudging her legs apart and entering her. It wasn't the most dignified of actions, but if he'd taken the time to give her the dignity she deserved, he would have lost the courage to take her at all. And this was Melanie. If she had a problem with it, she'd tell him in no uncertain terms.

But judging by the way she was moaning softly and arching against him, he didn't have to worry about whether or not she approved.

He slid a hand down her side, over her hip and along her side to hike her leg up against him. Melanie went one better, though, wrapping her legs around his waist.

"God," she managed. "Yes, Danny. Just _yes_."

There weren't a whole lot of words after that, save for the occasional whisper of a name or plea to go harder. They clung to each other, in desperation and desire, and when they came it was one after the other, with Danny determined to last and being completely undermined by Melanie's lips along his jaw.

Melanie clung to Danny, riding out her orgasm. She'd figured it would be nice, and she'd hoped it'd be good, but she hadn't expected sex with Danny Quinn to be quite so mind-blowing as it had been.

"Whoa."

"Good whoa, I hope," Danny murmured, letting his weight rest against Melanie for a moment.

"Hell yes."

Danny chuckled softly. "Good," he said, rolling onto his side.

"Seriously, that was amazing." Melanie propped her head on one hand. "I want to say thank you, but that makes it sound like it was pity sex or something, and it so wasn't for either of us."

"No, it wasn't," Danny agreed. "It was anything but."

"Comfort sex, maybe. But definitely not pity sex."

"And I can live with comfort sex," Danny said with a slight nod. Of course, he'd prefer an emotional connection, but he could certainly live with comfort sex.

Melanie leaned in, kissing Danny lightly. "Absolutely wonderful, going to be walking funny tomorrow comfort sex," she murmured against his lips.

He grinned at that. "I should apologize for going at you that hard, then."

"Don't you dare!" Melanie said, pulling back. "I... I think I needed it." She'd certainly wanted it, going by how much she'd been begging him to go harder.

He looked at her, a little surprised. "How so?"

"For a little while, I was able to forget about everything in my life except being with you. For the first time since Jared died, I've felt _normal_ again."

"Oh, Mel," Danny whispered. "You've always been normal."

"But I didn't _feel_ it. I've been emotionally disconnected for months now. I haven't responded right to anything. I've ignored so much that I should have been paying attention to."

"In that case, I'm glad to have helped," Danny said softly, shifting onto his back and reaching to pull her into his arms.

Melanie let herself be pulled against him. She snuggled close, resting her head on his chest. "This feels nice," she said softly. "It feels right."

"And that's the important thing," Danny replied, just as softly. "I don't regret it."

"Neither do I." Melanie gave a content little sigh. "I could stay like this all night," she confessed.

Danny's response was to grab the blanket and tug it over them. "Maybe we can't stay like this all night, but we can certainly stay like this for a while."

Melanie smiled at that, tilting her head up to brush a kiss along Danny's jaw. "Thank you," she murmured.

"You don't need to thank me," he said. "It's purely selfish motivations right now. Because really, like I'd want the attractive naked woman in my arms to leave?"

She laughed softly. "Well, even so, thank you. I know I don't have to say it, but..." The look in her eyes turned sly. "I could always show it." She shifted out of his arms and properly atop him, squeezing his hips gently with her knees as the blanket fell around her.

"I wouldn't turn that down," Danny said, watching her face hungrily, loving the expression she wore. His hands wandered to rest on her thighs.

Melanie shifted slightly, rising up on her knees a bit to position herself; she sank down on his erection with a small, content sigh.

Danny's response was a groan, bucking his hips up against her. "God," he gasped. "Why do you feel so good?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Melanie leaned forward over him, bracing her hands against his shoulders as she rode him slowly.

There was something different about the sex this time, something Danny couldn't quite put words to. It was almost as though Melanie were riding out her demons every time she moved against him, hips rocking back and forth in a pace that he secretly suspected was going to kill him. But oh, what a way to go.

His hands fell back down to the mattress, clutching at the sheet beneath him as he bucked up against her. When she leaned down to kiss him, he bit at her lip roughly and drew a moan from her.

That was when Danny discovered that he really, really liked hearing Melanie react to him; he bit at her lip again, this time drawing just the slightest bit of blood.

Instead of pulling away, Melanie just shuddered against Danny and kissed him roughly, her hands moving to cup his face and hold him there.

Danny grinned inwardly at that; his hands moved to her hips to pin her down against him. "You feel fucking fantastic," he gasped.

"Thank you," she managed to whimper. All she wanted to do was melt against him, to feel his body against hers, hard and demanding. At the same time, all she wanted to do was ride him mercilessly and make him beg for her.

She could easily do the second one.

Melanie sat up slightly, bracing her hands against Danny's shoulders again. "I'm going to make you beg," she said with a nearly feral grin that was entirely unlike her.

"Oh, really?" Danny managed to sound skeptical, something rather difficult given the way Melanie was slowly riding him.

"Uh-huh." She grinned. "I'm going to go slow, so slow, and you're going to beg me to stop torturing you and go faster. And maybe, if you're very very good, I will."

She was going to kill him, Danny was convinced. But oh, what a way to go. At the moment, he couldn't think of anything better than having Melanie naked and oh so willing in his bed.

"But not too good, I hope," Danny said, sliding his hands up her sides slowly.

"No." Melanie's breath hitched. "Not too good. Just good enough."

"Good to know." Danny cupped her breasts, kneading gently. Touching her was amazing, more amazing than almost anything else. He hadn't been aware of her like this at first, but over time he'd started thinking about her until it'd developed into wanting her. Into _needing_ her.

And now that he had her, he felt normal and stable and safe -- and _sane_ \-- for the first time in months. That was something he didn't want to lose.

"I like it when you're not so good," Melanie said, arching into Danny's hands. "I like it a lot."

"I don't ever want you to not like it," Danny said. "I don't ever want you to not like _me_."

Melanie went still at that, looking down at Danny. "Oh, Danny," she said, her voice full of emotion. "That's never going to happen. I promise. You hear me? I _promise_."

There was no mistaking the relief in Danny's eyes when she said those words. "Thank you," he said softly, feeling a vulnerability that he didn't like one bit. But where he might try and hide it with anybody else, he didn't try hiding it with Melanie. He trusted her to see his vulnerabilities and not take advantage of them.

"You're welcome," Melanie said softly, resuming her movements at a slower pace now, a more gentle one. The look on Danny's face tugged at her heartstrings. She saw that look on his face and all she wanted to do was whatever it took to make it go away. The only problem was, she didn't know what to do in order to make it go away.

Danny was perfectly happy with what Melanie was doing, even though he didn't know how to tell her. So he settled for sliding his hands slowly back down to her hips and letting them rest there lightly. He looked up at her in awe. She was so beautiful -- and for the moment, at least, she was his.

Except he was starting to think that he wanted her for more than just the moment -- a lot more than just the moment. He was starting to think he might want something with her that was more permanent than just a shag. As much as he meant it -- though he didn't understand it -- it was still a scary thought.

Something of that must've been in his eyes, because Melanie stilled for a second. "Something wrong?" she asked softly.

Danny shook his head. "Not a thing," he said with a smile. "Just thinkin'."

"Thinking instead of concentrating on sex?" Melanie arched an eyebrow and leaned down to kiss Danny. "Clearly I'm doing something wrong here."

"Oh, no," Danny mumbled against her lips. "You're doing things right. Very, very right."

"Then stop thinking about other things," Melanie said, nipping sharply at his lower lip. "You're going to start giving me a complex."

"And we can't have that." Danny tangled a hand in Melanie's hair, tugging gently. "No, we can't. You deserve to feel amazing right now, Mel."

"I do, Danny," she assured him. "I do. You make me feel like I'm flying."

"Good." Danny grinned before kissing her fiercely. "That's exactly how you should be feeling right now."

"You should be feeling good, too, though," she protested weakly.

"Now who's thinking about things?" Danny countered, his voice husky. "Stop thinking, Mel, and just let yourself feel." He slid his hand from her hair.

Melanie sat back up slowly, nodded, and leaned back a little as she rocked her hips against Danny at the same time his fingers sought between her legs. That moment, right there, was perfection.

Danny's fingers found her just right; she came with a loud, utterly unrepentant moan.

Danny came a moment later, with a moan just as loud and unrepentant as Melanie's. How could it be anything else when he'd just had one of the best experiences of his life?

"Holy shit," Melanie said, laughing breathessly. "Just... holy shit."

He could only agree.


	7. Chapter 7

"Hurt her and I'll kill you."

Danny looked up, startled. "What?" Those words were the last ones he expected to hear from anyone, though given who the speaker was it really shouldn't have surprised him.

"Hurt her and I'll kill you," Kyle repeated, leaning against the entrance of Danny's room.

"Hurt who?" Danny arched an eyebrow.

"Don't play dumb, Quinn. It doesn't suit you." Kyle folded his arms. "Melanie. Don't hurt her."

"Wasn't planning on it," Danny said, from where he sat up against one wall.

"Even if you weren't planning on it, don't do it anyway. She's family to us and we take care of family."

"Even after months, I'm still the outsider, I see." There was a strange, pained note in Danny's voice. "But don't worry, I don't plan on hurting Melanie. I care about her."

"She's important to all of us." Kyle gave him a look. "If she's important to you, make sure she knows it. I think she could use that knowledge right about now."

Danny was on alert at that. "Is something wrong?"

"Not for us," Kyle said. "For her. Because she's going to see moving on as forgetting Jared, and if you don't make it worth her while to have moved on with you, she's _really_ going to feel like she's betrayed and forgotten him."

"That's the last thing I want," Danny said. "I want her to remember him, because he was her first love and you should never forget that person."

"Just remember, she never thought she'd _have_ a first love, so losing him damn near killed her." Kyle fixed him with a stare. "Don't make her regret moving on, Quinn. Just don't."

"I won't," Danny promised.

"Good." Kyle paused. "And for future reference? A good half a dozen people heard the two of you going at it last night."

Danny buried his face in his hands. "Perfect," he mumbled.

Kyle laughed. "Relax, we were all just happy Mel seemed so happy." He grinned. "I'll have to tease her about being so damn loud, though."

"Don't you dare," Danny said, his head snapping up. "She'd be embarrassed as hell if she realized we'd been that loud."

The protective expression on Danny's face made Kyle grin again. "Relax," he said, holding his hands up in surrender. "I'm not doing anything. Mostly because she'd pitch me into the river if I did."

Danny couldn't help laughing. "Yeah, she really would," he agreed. "Or she'd punch you and _then_ pitch you in the river."

"That, too," Kyle agreed.

"So if I were you, I'd stay quiet about it." Danny's voice was friendly enough, but there was a slightly threatening, protective note in it once more.

"Down, Quinn," Kyle said. "I'm not going to say anything. I prefer not being pitched in the river -- by either of you."

Kyle had figured him out pretty well.

 

Danny found Melanie in the kitchen with Wanderer and Sunny. The two girls caught sight of him and quickly left the room, fighting giggles as they moved. Danny just shook his head.

"Hey," he said softly, approaching Melanie.

"Hey," she replied, not looking up from what she was doing. Those potatoes were quite fascinating, really they were.

"Did I do something wrong?" Danny asked after a moment.

"No, why?" Still not looking up. Hi, fascinating taters, she's still focusing on you.

"You're doing a pretty good job of trying to ignore me." And that hurt more than Danny had ever expected it might.

"I'm not trying to ignore you. It's just..." Melanie sighed and turned to look at him. "I've moved on, Danny. I've moved on from Jared, the only person I've ever been in love with. I'm having a hard time convincing myself that it isn't a betrayal of him."

"It's not, Mel," Danny said gently, touching her arm lightly. "Because you didn't want to move on, you weren't trying to move on. It just happened."

"Yeah." She nodded. "It did. And with somebody I didn't expect."

"That's how it goes sometimes." Danny leaned against the counter. "I've learned to never question love when it happens." Not that it'd happened all that often for him.

"See it from my eyes for a minute, Danny." Melanie fidgeted. "I lied a minute ago. I've been in love twice in my life."

"Jared and..."

"You, you idiot."

Danny hadn't quite been expecting _that_. That she cared for him, he knew. That she cared deeply, he'd suspected. But that she was in love with him? That was something he hadn't expected.

"Oh."

Melanie hadn't expected him to be ridiculously happy with it, but she'd been hoping for a more positive reaction than that. "You know, for what it's worth." She pushed away from the counter, brushing past him.

"Mel, wait -- "

She was gone before he could say anything more.

Danny just swore and resisted the urge to slam a hand against the counter in frustration. That wasn't at _all_ how he'd meant for it to go, but she'd caught him so off-guard with her admission.

And now he didn't know how to fix what he'd just broken.

 

Ian was busy getting ready to head out when Melanie approached him. "What's up?"

"I want to come with," Melanie said. "I just... I need to get out of here, Ian."

"What's wrong?" Ian asked, concerned.

"It's nothing," Melanie said, shrugging it off. "I just need to get out of here for a while."

"Okay..." Ian said doubtfully. "We're leaving in half an hour, though. Can you be ready in that time?"

"The others have the supplies ready," Melanie said. "This is just personal gear. I can be ready in half that."

Against his better judgement, with something inside screaming at him to say no, Ian just nodded. "Okay," he said again. "Go get ready."

Once she was gone, he let out a heavy sigh. Something was obviously on her mind and riding her hard. Part of him wanted to know what was wrong, but part of him knew that asking her wouldn't get him anywhere. Melanie was a private person, one who didn't open up lightly. The question was, did he really want her issues coming along with them on the trip and potentially interfering?

Well, no. But he trusted Mel to be professional enough to leave her issues behind -- or at least push them to the side so she could work. What he didn't trust was the thousand and one things that could pop up and catch them by surprise, that could distract Melanie despite her professionalism.

But worrying about those things now would do him no good. There was only so much that he could prepare for, that any of them could prepare for. All he could do was go into this the same way they went into every scouting trip and pray to a God he barely believed in that nothing would go wrong.

 

"Where's Mel?" Danny asked Wanderer.

"She went on the scouting trip with Ian and the others," Wanderer replied.

Danny went pale at that. He didn't like the idea of Melanie going out on scouting trips, didn't like the idea of her being in that kind of potential danger. He knew he couldn't stop her from going -- especially this time, since they'd already left -- but he'd be damned if he ever got used to it, if he ever started liking it.

"She'll be fine," Wanderer assured Danny, laying a hand gently on his arm. "Ian and Kyle won't let her get hurt."

Danny sighed. "You're right," he said. "I know you're right. But that doesn't mean I'm not worried for her. For all of them, but especially for her."

"I promise," Wanderer said with a solemn nod. "She's going to be just fine."

Danny couldn't shake the feeling he had that she was wrong, though, couldn't shake it even as he walked away from the young woman who'd tried to reassure him.

Part of him couldn't help wondering why he was so worried about Melanie. He'd told Wanderer the truth when he'd said he was worried about all of them, just like it'd also been the truth when he'd said that he was most worried about Mel. The worst part of it, though, was that he didn't even know _why_ he was suddenly so worried about her. He always worried about her safety, yes, but this was... more than that, somehow, and he wasn't sure what. He didn't like not understanding things. It didn't sit well with him. And this? Was definitely something he didn't understand.

So he did what he usually did when he wanted to think -- he roamed the tunnels, not paying a bit of attention to where he was going. He let his feet carry him, turning his mind to the task at hand.

Melanie was his best friend in this place, yes, but that didn't explain the sudden and nearly overwhelming sense of worry he felt, just like it didn't explain the absolute certainty he felt that something was going to happen. The only part he _wasn't_ certain on was _what_ exactly that something was going to be. It could be anything, really. The scouting party could be followed home, Melanie could be hurt, the others could be injured and leave Melanie the only one capable of getting home again, or something his mind couldn't come up with yet.

Or it could be the option that Danny didn't want to face: Melanie being hurt somehow. He knew that she knew how to take care of herself in terms of survival, but survival skills couldn't save you from a fall or other kind of accident. Though if she _did_ get hurt, at least she'd know how to survive until she could get home. That knowledge was cold comfort for Danny, though.

He wondered how Jamie was handling Melanie's being gone, wondered if Jamie even knew Melanie was gone yet. And before he realized it, his feet were taking him back towards the residential part of the cave system.

He poked his head into Jamie's room at the same time as he knocked.

"Hey, Danny," Jamie said with a grin. "What's up?"

"Do you know where your sister is?"

"Of course," Jamie said. "She went out with the others."

Danny swore under his breath. "Jesus, was I the only one who didn't know she went out?" He didn't like what he thought that meant.

"I don't think she wanted you to know," Jamie said helpfully. "She was probably trying to keep you from worrying."

Danny somehow doubted it.

"Well, if that's the case, it backfired," he said, forcing a chuckle. "I'm more worried now than I would've been if she'd told me she was going."

If he didn't know better, he would've said that was why Melanie hadn't told him she was going. But no, Melanie wasn't that bitchy and vindictive. She might've been hurt, and she might've been angry, but she wouldn't have done that to him.

"She'll be fine," Jamie assured him. "Mel knows what she's doing; they all do. And they shouldn't be gone long. Probably not more than two weeks."

Danny groaned inwardly. Two weeks of worrying about Melanie and the unidentifiable whatever it was that was going to happen would damn near kill him, he knew it already.

"I suppose I should look on the bright side," he said dryly. "At least she's with other people who know what they're doing."

Somehow, that wasn't terribly reassuring.

 

Melanie knew that her coming on this scouting trip was nothing more than an attempt to run away from Danny and everything she needed to face about their having been together. She'd obviously thought it meant more than it did. She could live with that, really she could, because Danny wasn't the sort to hurt her intentionally and he'd been damn good to her. But there was the simple fact that she _had_ thought it'd meant more than it did.

And that was something she still couldn't quite wrap her head around.

The part that hurt the most was that she'd told him she was in love with him and his response had been so incredibly underwhelming. She hadn't expected him to profess his undying love for her or anything as ridiculously romantic as that -- though there was a part of her that thought it would've been nice -- but God, she'd been hoping for a reaction a _little_ stronger than a simple "Oh." It was that reaction that'd told her she'd made a mistake in letting it go so far.

But at the same time, Danny was the one who'd made the first move. Didn't that mean he felt something for her? Or did it simply mean that he'd gotten tired of waiting for the right opportunity? She'd thought it was the right opportunity, but... his reaction had thrown her all off.

She shook her head and forced her attention back to the matter at hand as she carefully picked her way along an outcropping ten feet up overlooking a flat expanse of land. There'd been Soul activity there the past few days, despite it being a fairly isolated area and not the kind of place most of them would live. But there were houses, which meant places to steal from. Ian and the others were down in one of the houses, which left her to stand watch and make bird calls when -- or if -- she saw somebody coming.

There was nobody, though, which left her plenty of time to think even as she watched and kept an eye out. Unfortunately for her, her thoughts kept wandering right on back to Danny. Swearing under her breath, she pulled her hair back up into a ponytail and tried forcing her attention back to surveying the area. It consisted of nothing more than half a dozen houses, not particularly large ones but comfortable to live in. And that was when Melanie was hit with an unexpected surge of jealousy that the Souls got to live in fucking houses while the wild humans were stuck in caves and wherever else they could find to hide.

This jealousy was far preferable to worrying and wondering about Danny, though, as miserable a train of thought as it was -- because thinking about Danny was infinitely more miserable. After all, thinking about Danny meant thinking about how her heart was breaking.

Before she could go down either path of thought, the gravel she was standing on shifted under her feet. Yelping quietly, she scrambled for purchase with both hands and feet. Extremely unfortunately for her, however, her efforts at purchase didn't work and she skidded to the edge and over it, falling the ten feet with a loud, piercing scream.

She hit the ground hard, barely managing to keep from smacking her head against the ground as hard as she should have. She lay there, her breathing painful. Oh God, she was going to die here. She was going to die in the middle of fucking nowhere, with nobody around her.

Well, fuck that shit.

She opened her mouth and let out one loud scream after another, giving voice to her anger and rage and fear over Danny and her situation and everything else she could put into it. She screamed until her voice went hoarse, and then she screamed some more.

She exhausted that secondary reserve quickly and slumped against the ground. She closed her eyes, trying to summon some unknown third reserve of energy, a reserve she quickly found she didn't have. She tried staying awake, staying conscious, but it was so difficult, more difficult than she could stand. She quickly found herself slipping into unconsciousness. Her last thoughts were of Danny, a silent prayer to a man she knew wouldn't hear.

_God, Danny, I'm sorry. I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to do things properly. I'm sorry I wanted more than you were willing to give. I'm sorry I walked out instead of trying to talk it out. I'm so sorry..._

 

Kyle's head snapped up. "Did you hear that?" He tilted his head, trying to place something.

"Hear what?" Ian looked at him.

"It sounded like screaming."

Only one person would have been around to be screaming.

"Oh shit, something happened to Mel!" Ian was out the door in an instant, tearing towards the outcropping that the half dozen houses stood in the shadow of.

Sure enough, there was Melanie, laying entirely too still for anybody's comfort.

Ian was kneeling at her side, checking her vitals when Kyle came skidding up to him. He looked up at his brother. "We need to make a stretcher and get her back home," he said. "Now. I don't know what happened to her, aside from falling, but that's enough." The simple fact that she was hurt put the entire trip in an entirely new kind of danger.

"Can we even risk moving her?" Kyle asked. "I mean, she fell. She could have a broken back or something." He didn't like the pale look on her face. He stood there, looking at her.

"I don't know, but we don't have much of a choice," Ian said grimly. "We sure as hell can't treat her here. She needs Doc." He looked back to Melanie. "Go back to the houses, get the others, start searching for anything we can use to make a stretcher. We're in for a long two-day walk as is; she needs to be as comfortable as possible."

Kyle looked at Ian and Melanie for a long moment before bolting back to the houses as quickly as his feet could carry him.


	8. Chapter 8

Danny was helping Doc with something when Ian and Kyle came in with a makeshift stretcher between them.

"What happened?" Doc demanded.

"Melanie took a fall," Ian said. "She was leaning out over the edge of an outcropping and she must've lost her balance or something, I don't know. I didn't see it. I didn't know anything about it until I heard her screaming."

Danny had gone pale. "Is she... is she..."

"She's still alive," Doc reported as he checked Melanie's pulse. "It's weak, though. She must've fallen from a pretty good height. Or else hit her head from a shorter distance."

"Oh, God."

Doc turned to Danny. "I need you to get out of here," he said as gently as he could manage. "I need to take care of her."

"I want to help," Danny said stubbornly. "You need another pair of hands."

"You're too involved," Doc insisted. "You -- "

"Damn it, I'm staying!" Danny snapped. "Now what do you need me to do?"

Doc rattled off instructions and Danny followed them, all the while whispering reassurances to Melanie. "You're going to be just fine, Mel," he promised. "We're taking good care of you and you're going to be just fine. You have to be. There's a conversation we need to have and we can't have it if you slip away from me."

"She's not going to," Doc said finally. "She's through the worst of it, I think. Which is a miracle, considering there was a three-day trek through the desert." And he wasn't terribly thrilled about that.

Danny breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God," he murmured, running one hand along Melanie's arm. "Thank God." He quirked a smile. "She can't die on me, she's not had the chance to call me an idiot for how I've treated her."

"What did you do to our Melanie?" Doc asked as he pulled a battered chair up to Melanie's bedside and pushed Danny down into it.

"We're... well, I suppose you'd say we're involved," Danny replied. "Or we would be, if not for a misunderstanding."

Doc nodded slowly. "What kind of misunderstanding?"

"She told me how she feels about me and my response was something along the lines of 'Oh.' Not my finest hour." He could -- and would -- admit when he'd erred.

"No, I suppose not," Doc said with a chuckle. "How did she react?"

"She walked away. Must've gone to Ian and told him she wanted to be included on this trip."

"Must've been a hard couple days for you," Doc mused.

"Harder than almost anything else I've ever done," Danny said honestly. "And I've done some difficult things in my time."

"You don't talk much about your past," Doc said. "I respect that. Not everybody's had a good past. But I think it's part of what's helped you bond with our Melanie here."

"She's lost everyone who matters to her except Jamie," Danny said. "Which in some ways is the reverse of me, since my brother is the only one I lost. But we both know loss. There've been nights where she sat with me and we just talked about anything and everything except the reality of the situation we're in."

"It sounds to me like you two have a pretty good thing going."

"We do," Danny said with a nod. "Or we did until I loused it up."

"So fix it," Doc said. "When she wakes up -- and she will, Danny, I promise -- fix it."

 

Danny didn't move from Melanie's side, not even when Jamie came to sit with her.

"She's going to be okay," Jamie said, clapping Danny on the shoulder before dropping into a chair. "My sister's a fighter. She always has been. And she always will be."

"I know," Danny said, nodding slightly. "I know."

"So why the long face, then?" Jamie asked after a moment, with a wisdom beyond his nineteen years. "You're in love with Mel, aren't you?"

Danny's first instinct was to deny it; he couldn't do that, though. Not when talking to Melanie's own brother. So he just nodded slightly. "Yeah," he said quietly, squeezing Melanie's unresponsive hand in his. 'I am. Have been for a while, to be honest."

"She loves you, too," Jamie said simply.

"I know. She told me. I... I was kind of surprised," Danny said, finding it easier to look at Melanie's hand than to look at Jamie. "I didn't react well. Not because I don't feel the same -- obviously I do -- but because she just caught me completely by surprise with it. I gave her a less than intelligent reaction and she took it the wrong way. She thought it meant I didn't care. I do, though. I very much do."

"I know," Jamie said, looking at Danny seriously. "I've seen the way you act around her, the way you look at her. The way you get so overprotective of her."

"Which goes over ridiculously not well at all," Danny said, chuckling despite himself.

"She's never liked relying on other people -- or doing what might come across as relying on other people," Jamie said. "But she likes it when you get protective of her."

"Really?" Danny looked at him curiously.

Jamie nodded. "She told me once, a couple weeks ago." He grinned. "And oh, is she gonna smack me when she finds out I told you that."

"She won't hear it from me," Danny promised, looking to Jamie and then looking almost immediately back to Melanie.

"Just don't break her heart," Jamie said, leaning forward to touch his sister's arm. "She doesn't deserve that."

"I won't," Danny said. "That's the last thing in the world I want to do."

"Because she's already had her heart broken once when Jared died. You toying with her would put her right back where she was when you got here."

"I'm not going to break her heart," Danny snapped. "And quite frankly, I resent the insinuation that I would."

Jamie held up his hands in mock surrender. "Just making sure," he said. "Can't blame me for wanting to be sure my big sister's involved with a guy I can trust."

"You already know you can trust me," Danny said. "You guys have trusted me to be here, after all."

"It's different when we're talking about her heart."

Danny couldn't argue with that. He understood well the protectiveness of siblings... which only made him think about his own brother and how he'd been unable to help him, hadn't even known something was wrong until it was too late.

"You think you're bad now," he retorted after a moment, lacing his fingers with Melanie's. "Just wait until you meet a nice girl. Melanie will read her the riot act and quite possibly scare her off."

"Oh God, she really would." Jamie couldn't help laughing. "Not that we have to worry about that," he said, sobering. "The odds of there being a girl around for me to fall for are pretty low."

"Low but not entirely nonexistent," Danny pointed out. "After all, I'm pretty sure Melanie never thought she'd fall in love with me."

Jamie couldn't argue with that, as different as the two scenarios were.

"And she _does_ love you, Danny," he said. "She hasn't told me that, but I don't need to hear her say it to know it's true."

"I know it's true," Danny said, squeezing Melanie's hand again. "I know." He sighed. "God, I'd give anything right now to make it so that she wasn't hurt."

"She's going to be fine," Jamie said again.

"And I'm grateful beyond belief for that, but she shouldn't have to _be_ hurt," Danny said, frustrated. "It's my fault."

"It's... your fault she lost her balance and took a tumble?" Jamie looked at Danny mock quizzically.

"She wouldn't have been on that trip in the first place if I'd had a better reaction."

"Maybe, maybe not," Jamie said. "But you had a totally understandable reaction. You heard something you weren't expecting to hear and it threw you. It's not your fault Mel took it the wrong way."

Danny was reluctant to place any blame on Melanie, though. "Yeah, but..." He sighed. "She still wouldn't have felt the need to get away from me if I'd had a better reaction."

Ah, there it was. The real point to his guilt.

"Danny, listen to me," Jamie said gently. "She wasn't running away from you. She was trying to deal with the pain she was feeling, yeah, but she wasn't running from you."

"Still," Danny said, his voice quiet. "She was hurting because of me. The one person in the world that I least want to hurt is the one person I've hurt the most."

"She'll forgive you," Jamie assured him. "She loves you; she'll forgive you."

God, Danny hoped so.

 

Ian stood there, watching Danny as he sat next to Melanie. "How long's he been there?"

"Since she got brought in," Doc replied. "I try to make him leave and he just snarls."

"Tell me you don't mean that literally." And yet, Ian could see it. "Is it okay if he's in there with her?"

"Can't do any harm," Doc said with a shrug. "And it keeps him from falling apart, which can only be a good thing. He's unstable enough, though he's better now than he was when he arrived."

Ian had to admit the other man had a point. "Even so, I'm going to try and chase him out for a little bit." With that, he walked into the infirmary and over to Melanie's bedside. "There _are_ other people here who'll sit with her, you know."

"They're not me," Danny replied. "They don't have the guilt I have."

"Yeah, about that..." Ian said. "Do you realize how it's going to affect Wanda if you hurt Melanie?"

Danny thought about it. "Probably not well. They're sisters, practically."

"So don't break her heart."

"Goddamn it, why the fuck do people keep assuming I'm going to break Mel's heart?" Danny snapped, eyes blazing as he looked at Ian. "How about putting a little goddamn trust in me? Or are you incapable of trusting me? I _am_ the new guy, after all, despite having been here almost nine months. I'll _always_ be the new guy to you people, won't I?"

"Calm down, Danny," Ian said, holding his hands up. "I'm just saying that if you're not going to take things further with Mel, then you probably shouldn't be here when she wakes up. You don't want to give her hope that's just going to get dashed at the first words out of your mouth."

"I love the astonishing amount of credit you give me," Danny said bitterly, looking back to Melanie. "Even Jamie was more polite about it than you were. You've been taking lessons from your brother, haven't you?"

"I'm just saying that she's going to be very tender-hearted when she comes out of it," Ian said. "She didn't come with us out of the goodness of her heart, Danny. She came with us because she was running. Running from _you_. It didn't take a genius to figure that out. Took me a minute, but it didn't take me all that long."

"I didn't mean to make her run from me," Danny said, squeezing Melanie's hand gently. "I didn't mean to react so badly. I just... she surprised me, Ian. She told me she loves me. She threw me for a loop."

"Why did that throw you for a loop?" Ian asked. "Is it really so hard to believe Melanie could fall in love again after Jared?"

"It was hard to believe she could fall in love with _me_ ," Danny said. "I'm not exactly the best person for her. I'm unstable on a good day. I have nightmares. I'm possessive and overprotective."

"And if you get possessive of her to a point she doesn't like, she'll tell you to stuff it," Ian said. "She's an independent woman, Danny. She can take care of herself. She doesn't need you to protect her."

"I want to, though," Danny said. "And she doesn't need me. She needs someone better for her, someone who can be what she deserves."

"How about what she wants, though?" Ian asked. "If she wants you, then doesn't she deserve a chance with you? If you don't want her, that's one thing. And if that's the case, then you need to man up and tell her in a way that's not going to hurt her feelings or break her heart. But if it's just you being scared and afraid, then stop being gutless and give it a chance."

Danny snarled, but there was no real heat behind it. "What do you want to hear, Ian? What do you want to hear me say?"

"That you know you've been an idiot and want to fix what you screwed up," Ian said quietly. "That's it, Danny."

"Well, I _do_ know I've been an idiot," Danny said. "But to be fair, when a woman leads up to telling you she loves you and you're not expecting to hear it, it _does_ throw you."

"Think real carefully before you let out your next words," Ian warned. "Because if you're going to say that Melanie was meaningless sex, then I'm going to put your ass through the wall. Don't think I won't."

The scary thing was, Danny believed him.

"I'm not saying that," Danny said. "You're putting words in my mouth. All I'm saying is that I didn't think she felt the same way about me that I do about her. I thought it was meaningless on her end. Well, not meaningless, but I certainly didn't think it had as much meaning for her as it did. I didn't dare to _hope_ that it did."

Ian sighed, looking at Danny. "I mean it, Danny. Break her heart and I'll break you. Because if you hurt her, it's going to hurt Wanderer, and _nobody_ hurts Wanderer."

"You love her a hell of a lot, don't you?" Danny asked with a faint smile and a look back at the younger man.

"Yeah, I do," Ian said. "And I'm going to do whatever I can to make sure she doesn't get hurt. Which, you hurting Melanie would definitely qualify."

Danny sighed. "I don't know what to say, Ian, other than I'm not going to intentionally hurt Melanie. And if she wakes up -- when she wakes up -- I'm going to do what I can to make things right. If it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't."

Ian looked at Danny, clearly not satisfied but too polite to call him on it any further when it was obvious that Danny was hurting just as badly as Melanie had been. "I know it's not easy, Danny. But love never is."

Now there was something Danny couldn't argue with.

 

Melanie woke with a splitting headache and a whimper. "Danny," she whispered. "I need... Danny..."

"I'm right here, love," Danny said, sitting forward and squeezing Melanie's hand gently. "I'm right here."

"Good," she said, blinking through the pain. "Thought I'd never see you again. Didn't like that at all."

"You're too stubborn to die," Danny said, lacing their fingers together.

She laughed and then winced. "Where's Doc? I have a headache."

"Right here, Melanie," Doc said soothingly as he administered one of the medications stolen from the Souls. "There you go. You should start feeling better in a minute or two."

Melanie relaxed back against the uncomfortable bed. "Thanks, Doc."

Doc patted her shoulder. "I've got some things to take care of. I'll leave you two to talk."

"Talk?" Melanie frowned, confused. "Why are we talking?" She didn't need to talk right now, not when she was still half out of it.

"Because I was a sodding idiot and it's because of me that you nearly died."

If it wouldn't have hurt her head, Melanie would've done a double-take. "What are you talking about? I went because I wanted to." Such a lie, and they both knew it.

"Because you were upset," Danny said gently. "Because of me. And I'm sorry for that. I didn't mean to give you the wrong impression. I didn't mean to make you think that I don't care, because I do."

"Danny, please," Melanie said, a pinched look on her face. "If this is the 'I care as a friend' speech, do me a favor and wait until I'm properly conscious. If I'm about to get rejected, I'd like to be completely aware of it."

"It's not that speech," Danny promised. "Because I don't care as a friend. I care as the man who hopes someday he'll be good enough for you."

Melanie couldn't help it; she stared at him. "What the hell makes you think you're not already good enough for me?" she asked, wondering if the concussion she had no doubt suffered was making her more than a little out of it.

"The fact that I hurt you."

"So you were an idiot," she said. "So what? Yeah, it hurt, but it hardly means you're not good enough for me."

And that was when her brain caught up with the conversation.

"What does this mean, then?" she asked. "Does it mean what I think it means?"

"If you think it means that I want you, then yes. It very much means that," Danny replied.

"I know you want me, Danny. You proved that pretty well when you were screwing my brains into the mattress. But do you want more than that? Because I opened up to you more than I've ever opened up to anyone, even Jared. And if you don't want more than a random screw on occasion, then you're out of luck because you won't even be getting that. My heart can't take getting broken, Danny. Not again. So if you're going to break it, just stop before you even get there."

Danny took a breath. "I want more," he said slowly. "I do. But I'm not sure how good I'm actually going to be at it." It hurt to say, but he owed her that honesty.

"I don't care if you're good at it or not," Melanie said, looking at him solemnly. "I just want you to try, Danny. I just want you to give it a shot and _try_ for me." She hated the pleading note in her voice, but even more than that, she hated the idea of Danny not understanding how important this was to her.

Danny looked down at their hands, where their fingers were still laced together. "How could I not want to try for you?" he asked softly. "You're the most amazing woman I've ever met, Mel. You're strong and resilient and brilliant and beautiful and if the world were normal, I'd be wining and dining you oh so very hard because I don't want to let you out of my life."

"But since the world's not normal?"

Danny leaned in, brushing his lips against Melanie's for a moment before deepening the kiss hungrily, until they both needed to breathe. "I love you, Mel. And that's what I should've said when you told me how you felt. That's what I should've said instead of being an idiot about it."

Melanie grinned breathlessly at him. "You're my idiot, though."

Danny grinned. He'd never heard better words than those. "You just made me the happiest man in the world, you know that?"

"That's usually the kind of reaction a woman gets when she says yes to a man's proposal," Melanie said, bemused.

"Oh, if things were normal, I'd be proposing to you," he assured her. "But they're not normal, so things get done a little bit differently." He grinned. "But you wouldn't have it any other way."

"With you, no. No, I wouldn't."


End file.
